THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

ANTHROPOLOGY 

ALFRED  L.  KROEBER 
COLLECTION 


The  CELLAR  BOOK  SHOP 


MAN  AND  HIS  MIGKATIONS. 


BY 


R.  G.  LATHAM,  M.  D.,  F.  B.  S., 

CORRESPONDING   MEMBER  TO  THE  ETHNOLOGICAL  SOCIETY,    NEW  YORK, 
ECT.   ETC. 


NEW  YOEK: 
CHARLES  B.  NORTON,  71  CHAMBERS  STREET, 

IRVING      HOUSE. 

1852. 


NEW  YORK : 

BAKER,   GODWIN   te   CO.,  PRINTERS, 
TRIBUNE    BUILDING  S. 


Add4! 


Anthropology 


ANTHROP 


PREFACE, 


THE  following  pages  represent  a  Course  of 
Six  Lectures  delivered  at  the  Mechanics'  Insti 
tution,  Liverpool,  in  the  month  of  March  of  the 
past  year ;  the  matter  being  now  laid  before 
the  public  in  a  somewhat  fuller  and  more  sys 
tematic  form  than  was  compatible  with  the 
original  delivery. 


721 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Page 

The  Natural  or  Physical  History  of  Man— the  Civil— their 
difference — divisions  of  the  Natural  or  Physical  His 
tory — Anthropology — Ethnology — how  far  pursued  by 
the  ancients — Herodotus — how  far  by  the  moderns — 
Buffon  —  Linnaeus  —  Daubenton  —  Camper— Blumen- 
bach— the  term  Caucasian— Cnvier— Philology  as  an 
instrument  of  ethnological  investigation — Pigafetta — 
Hervas— Leibnitz— Keland— Adelung— Klaproth— the 
union  of  Philology  and  of  Anatomy— Prichard— its 
Palseontological  character— influence  of  Lyell's  Geology 
—of  WhewelTs  History  of  the  Inductive  Sciences  .  9-44 

CHAPTER  II. 

Ethnology — its  objects — the  chief  problems  connected 
with  it— prospective  questions— transfer  of  populations 
— extract  from  Knox — correlation  of  certain  parts  of 
the  body  to  certain  external  influences— parts  less  sub 
ject  to  such  influences — retrospective  questions — the 
unity  or  non-unity  of  our  species — opinions — plurality 
of  species — multiplicity  of  protoplasts — doctrine  of  de 
velopment — Dokkos — extract — antiquity  of  our  species 
— its  geographical  origin — the  term  race  .  .  .,  45-75 


vi  CONTENTS. 

Page 
CHAPTER  III. 

Methods — the  science  one  of  observation  and  deduction 
rather  than  experiment — classification — on  mineralogi- 
cal,  on  zoological  principles — the  first  for  Anthropology, 
the  second  for  Ethnology — value  of  Language  as  a  test 
— instances  of  its  loss — of  its  retention — when  it  proves 
original  relation,  when  intercourse — the  grammatical 
and  glossarial  tests — classifications  must  be  real — the 
distribution  of  Man — size  of  areas — ethnological  con 
trasts  in  close  geographical  contact — discontinuity  and 
isolation  of  areas — oceanic  migrations  ....  76-108 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Details  of  distribution — their  conventional  character — 
convergence  from  the  circumference  to  the  centre — 
Fuegians,  Patagonian,  Pampa,  and  Chaco  Indians — 
Peruvians  —  D'Orbigny's  characters  —  other  South 
American  Indians — of  the  Missions — of  Guiana — of 
Venezuela — Guarani — Caribs — Central  America — Mex 
ican  civilization  no  isolated  phenomenon — North 
American  Indians — Eskimo — apparent  objections  to 
their  connection  with  the  Americans  and  Asiatics — 
Tasmanians — Australians — Papuas — Polynesians — Mi- 
cronesians — Malagas! — Hottentots — Kaifres — Negroes 
— Berbers — Abyssinians — Copts — the  Semitic  family — 
Primary  and  secondary  migrations  ....  109-166 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Ugrians  of  Lapland,  Finland,  Permia,  the  Ural 
Mountains  and  the  Volga — area  of  the  light-haired 
families — Turanians — the  Kelts  of  Ireland,  Scotland, 
Wales,  Gaul — the  Goths — the  Sarmatians — the  Greeks 
and  Latins — difficulties  of  European  ethnology — dis 
placement  —  intermixture  —  identification  of  ancient 
families — extinction  of  ancient  families — the  Etruscans 


CONTENTS.  vii 

Page 

— the  Pelasgi — isolation — the  Basks — the  Albanians — 
classifications  and  hypotheses — term  Indo-European — 
the  Finnic  hypothesis 167-194 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Monosyllabic  area — the  T'hay — the  Mon  and  Kho — 
Tables — the  B'hot — the  Chinese — Burmese — Persia — 
India — Tamulian  family — the  Brahiii — the  Dioscurians 
— the  Georgians — Iron — Mizj eji — Lesgians — Armeni 
ans — Asia  Minor — Lycians — Carians — Paropamisans — 
Conclusion  ....  195-261 


MAN  AND  HIS  MIGRATIONS, 


CHAPTEE  I. 

The  Natural  or  Physical  History  of  Man — the  Civil — their  dif 
ference — divisions  of  the  Natural  or  Physical  history — An 
thropology — Ethnology — how  far  pursued  by  the  ancients — 
Herodotus — how  far  by  the  moderns — Buffon — Linna3us — 
Daubeuton — Camper — Blumenbach — the  term  Caucasian — 
Cuvier — Philology  as  an  instrument  of  ethnological  investi 
gation — Pigafetta — Hervas — Leibnitz — Reland  —  Adelung — 
Klaproth — the  union  of  Philology  and  of  Anatomy — Prichard 
— its  Palseontological  character — influence  of  LyelPs  Geology 
— of  Whewell's  History  of  the  Inductive  Sciences. 

LET  us  contrast  the  Civil  with  the  Natural 
History  of  Man. 

The  influence  of  individual  heroes,  the  effect 
of  material  events,  the  operations  of  ideas,  the 
action  and  reaction  of  the  different  elements  of 
society  upon  each  other,  come  within  the  domain 
of  the  former.  An  empire  is  consolidated,  a 
contest  concluded,  a  principle  asserted,  and  the 
civil  historian  records  them.  He  does  more.  If 
he  be  true  to  his  calling,  he  investigates  the 
2 


10  DIFFERENCE   BETWEEN   THE 

springs  of  action  in  individual  actors,  measures 
the  calibre  of  their  moral  and  intellectual  power, 
ancl  pronounces  a  verdict  of  praise  or  blame 
upon  the  motives  which  determine  their  mani 
festation.  This  makes  him  a  great  moral  teacher, 
and  gives  a  value  to  his  department  of  know 
ledge,  which  places  it  on  a  high  and  peculiar 
level. 

Dealing  with  actions  and  motives,  he  deals 
nearly  exclusively  with  those  of  individuals  ;  so 
much  so,  that  even  where  he  records  the  move 
ments  of  mighty  masses  of  men,  he  generally 
finds  that  there  is  one  presiding  will  which  reg 
ulates  and  directs  them  ;  and  even  when  this  is 
not  the  case,  when  the  movement  of  combined 
multitudes  is  spontaneous,  the  spring  of  action 
is  generally  of  a  moral  nature — a  dogma  if  re 
ligious,  a  theory  if  political. 

Such  a  history  as  this  could  not  be  written  of 
the  brute  animals,  neither  could  it  be  written 
for  them.  No  animal  but  Man  supplies  either 
its  elements  or  its  objects ;  nor  yet  the  record 
which  transmits  the  memory  of  past  actions, 
even  when  they  are  of  the  most  material  kind. 
The  civil  historian,  therefore,  of  our  species,  or, 
to  speak  with  a  conciseness  which  common  par 
lance  allows,  the  historian,  living  and  breathing 
in  the  peculiar  atmosphere  of  humanity,  and 
exhibiting  man  in  the  wide  circle  of  moral  and 


NATUEAL   AND   CIVIL   HISTOEY    OF    MAN.         11 

intellectual  action, — a  circle  in  which  none  but 
he  moves, — takes  up  his  study  where  that  of  the 
lower  animals  ends.  "Whatever  is  common  to 
them  and  man,  belongs  to  the  naturalist.  Let 
each  take  his  view  of  the  Arab  or  the  Jew.  The 
one  investigates  the  influence  of  the  Bible  and 
the  Koran ;  whilst  the  other  may  ask  how  far  the 
Moorish  blood  has  mixed  with  that  of  the  Span 
iard,  or  remark  the  permanence  of  the  Israelite 
features  under  climates  so  different  as  Poland, 
Morocco,  or  Hindostan.  The  one  will  think  of 
instincts,  the  other  of  ideas. 

In  what  part  of  the  word  did  this  originate  ? 
How  was  it  diffused  over  the  surface  of  the 
earth  ?  At  what  period  in  the  world's  history 
was  it  evolved?  Where  does  it  thrive  best? 
Where  does  it  cease  to  thrive  at  all  ?  What 
forms  does  it  take  if  it  degenerate  ?  What  con 
ditions  of  soil  or  climate  determine  such  degen 
erations  ?  What  favor  its  improvement  ?  Can 
it  exist  in  Nova  Zembla  ?  In  Africa  ?  In  either 
region  or  both  ?  Do  the  long  nights  of  the  Pole 
blanch,  does  the  bright  glare  of  the  Equator 
deepen  its  color  ?  &c.  Instead  of  multiplying 
questions  of  this  kind,  I  will  ask  to  what  they 
apply.  They  apply  to  every  being  that  multi 
plies  its  kind  upon  earth  ;  to  every  animal  of 
the  land  or  sea  ;  to  every  vegetable  as  well ;  to 
every  organized  being.  They  apply  to  the  ape, 


12  NATURAL  HISTORY,   ETC. 

the  horse,  the  dog,  the  fowl,  the  fish,  the  insect, 
the  fruit,  the  flower.  They  apply  to  these — and 
they  apply  to  man  as  well.  They — and  the  like 
of  them — Legion  by  name — common  alike  to  the 
lords  and  the  lower  orders  of  the  creation,  con 
stitute  the  natural  history  of  genus  Homo  /  and 
I  use  the  language  of  the  Zoologist  for  the  sake  of 
exhibiting  in  a  prominent  and  palpable  manner, 
the  truly  zoological  character  of  this  department 
of  science.  Man  as  an  animal  is  the  motto 
here ;  whilst  Man  as  a  moral  leing  is  the  motto 
with  the  Historian. 

It  is  not  very  important  whether  we  call 
this  Natural  or  Physical  History.  There  are 
good  authorities  on  both  sides.  It  is  only  im 
portant  to  see  how  it  differs  from  the  History  of 
the  Historian. 

Man's  Civil  history  has  its  divisions.  Man's 
Natural  history  has  them  also. 

The  first  of  these  takes  its  name  from  the 
Greek  words  for  man  (anthropos),  and  doctrine 
(logos),  and  is  known  as  Anthropology. 

When  the  first  pair  of  human  beings  stood 
alone  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  there  were  then 
the  materials  for  Anthropology ;  and  so  there 
would  be  if  our  species  were  reduced  to  the  last 
man.  There  would  be  an  Anthropology  if  the 
world  had  no  inhabitants  but  Englishmen,  or 

O  5 

none  but  Chinese ;  none  but  red  men  of  Amer 
ica,  or  none  but  blacks  of  Africa.     "Were  the 


ITS   DIVISIONS ANTHROPOLOGY.  13 

uniformity  of  feature,  the  identity  of  color,  the 
equality  of  stature,  the  rivalry  of  mental  capaci 
ty  ever  so  great,  there  would  still  be  an  An 
thropology.  This  is  because  Anthropology  deals 
with  Man  as  compared  with  the  lower  animals. 

"We  consider  the  structure  of  the  human  ex 
tremities,  and  enlarge  upon  the  flatness  of  the 
foot,  and  the  flexibility  of  the  hand.  The  one  is 
subservient  to  the  erect  posture,  the  other  to 
the  innumerable  manipulations  which  human 
industry  demands.  We  compare  them  with 
the  flns  of  fishes,  the  wings  of  birds ;  in  doing 
which,  we  take  the  most  extreme  contrasts  we 
can  find.  But  we  may  also  take  nearer  approx 
imations,  e.  g.  the  hands  of  the  higher  apes. 
Here  we  find  likeness  as  well  as  difference ; 
difference  as  well  as  likeness.  We  investigate 
both  ;  and  record  the  result  either  in  detail  or 
by  some  general  expression.  Perhaps  we  pro 
nounce  that  the  one  side  gives  the  conditions  of 
an  arboreal  life,  the  other  those  of  a  social  state  ; 
the  ape  being  the  denizen  of  the  woods,  the  man 
of  towns  and  cities ;  the  one  a  climber,  the  other 
a  walker. 

Or  we  compare  the  skull  of  the  man  and  the 
chimpanzee ;  noticing  that  the  ridges  and  promi 
nences  of  the  external  surface,  which  in  the 
former  are  merely  rudimentary,  become  strongly 
marked  crests  in  the  latter.  We  then  remein- 


14:  ANTHROPOLOGY. 

ber  that  the  one  is  the  framework  lor  the  mus 
cles  of  the  face ;  the  other  is  the  case  for  the 
brain. 

All  that  is  done  in  this  way  is  Anthropology. 

Every  class  of  organized  beings  has,  mutatis 
mutandis,  its  anthropological  aspect ;  so  that 
the  dog  may  be  contemplated  in  respect  to  the 
fox  which  equals,  the  ape  which  excels,  or  the 
kangaroo  which  falls  short  of  it  in  its  approach 
to  a  certain  standard  of  organization ;  in  other 
words,  as  species  and  genera  have  their  relative 
places  in  the  ladder  of  creation,  the  investigation 
of  such  relations  is  co-extensive  with  the  exis 
tence  of  the  classes  and  groups  on  which  it 
rests. 

Anthropology  deals  too  much  with  such 
matters  as  these  to  be  popular.  Unless  the  sub 
ject  be  handled  with  excessive  delicacy,  there 
is  something  revolting  to  fastidious  minds  in  the 
cool  contemplation  of  the  differentia)  of  the 
Zoologist, 

"  Who  shows  a  Newton  as  he  shows  an  ape. 

Yet,  provided  there  be  no  morbid  gloating  over 
the  more  dishonorable  points  of  similarity,  no 
pleasurable  excitement  derived  from  the  low 
ering  view  of  our  nature,  the  study  is  not  ig 
noble.  At  any  rate,  it  is  part  of  human  know 
ledge,  and  a  step  in  the  direction  of  self-know 
ledge. 


ETHNOLOGY.  15 

Besides  this,  the  relationship  is  merely  one 
of  degree.  We  may  not  be  either  improperly 
or  unpleasantly  like  the  orang-utan  or  the  chim 
panzee.  We  may  even  be  angelomorphic. 
Nevertheless,  we  are  more  like  orang-utans  and 
chimpanzees  than  aught  else  upon  earth. 

The  other  branch  of  Man's  Natural  History 
is  called  Ethnology — from  the  Greek  word  sig 
nifying  nation  (ethnos). 

It  by  no  means  follows,  tha  tbecause  there  is 
an  anthropology  there  is  an  ethnology  also.  There 
is  no  ethnology  where  there  is  but  a  single  pair 
to  the  species.  There  would  be  no  ethnology 
if  all  the  world  were  negroes  ;  none  if  every 
man  was  a  Chinese ;  none  if  there  were  naught 
but  Englishmen.  The  absolute  catholicity  of  a 
religion  without  sects,  the  centralized  uniformi 
ty  of  a  universal  empire,  are  types  and  parallels 
to  an  anthropology  without  an  ethnology.  This 
is  because  Ethnology  deals  with  Jllan  in  respect 
to  Ms  Varieties. 

There  would  be  an  anthropology  if  but  one 
single  variety  of  mankind  existed. 

But  if  one  variety  of  mankind — and  no  more 
• — existed,  there  would  be  no  ethnology.  It 
would  be  as  impossible  a  science  as  a  polity  on 
Robinson  Crusoe's  island. 

But  let  there  be  but  a  single  sample  of  dif 
ferent  though  similar  bodily  conformation.  Let 


16  EANGE    OF 

there  be  a  white  as  well  as  a  black,  or  a  black 
as  well  as  a  white  man.  In  that  case  ethnology 
begins  ;  even  as  a  polity  began  on  Crusoe's  island 
when  his  servant  Friday  became  a  denizen  of  it. 
The  other  classes  of  organized  beings,  al 
though,  mutatis  mutandis,  they  have,  of  neces 
sity,  their  equivalent  to  an  anthropology,  may 
or  may  not  have  an  ethnology.  The  dog  has 
one;  the  chimpanzee  has  either  none  or  an  in 
significant  one ;  differences  equivalent  to  those 
which  separate  the  cur  from  the  greyhound,  or 
the  shepherd's-dog  from  the  pointer,  being  want 
ing.  Again,  a  treatise  which  showed  how  the 
chimpanzee  differed  from  the  orang-utan  on  one 
Bide,  and  man  on  the  other,  would  be  longer 
than  a  dissertation  upon  the  extent  to  which  the 
chimpanzees  differed  from  each  other;  yet  a 
dissertation  on  the  varieties  of  dogs  would  be 
bulkier  than  one  on  their  relations  to  the  fox. 
This  shows  how  the  proportions  of  the  two  studies 
may  vary  with  the  species  under  consideration. 
In  the  Natural  History  of  Man,  the  ethnologi 
cal  aspect  is  the  most  varied.  It  is  also  the  one 
which  has  been  most  studied.  With  the  horse, 
or  the  sheep,  with  many  of  the  domestic  fowls, 
with  the  more  widely-cultivated  plants,  the  study 
of  the  variety  outweighs  that  of  the  species.  With 
the  dog  it  does  so  in  an  unparalleled  degree.  But 
what  if  the  dog-tribe  had  the  use  of  language  ? 


ETHNOLOGY.  17 

What  if  the  language  differed  with  each  variety  ? 
In  such  a  case  the  study  of  canine  ethnology 
would  be  doubly  and  trebly  complex,  though  at 
the  same  time  the  data  for  conducting  it  would 
"be  both  increased  and  improved.  A  distant — 
a  very  distant  approach — to  this  exists.  The 
wild  dog  howls ;  the  companion  of  man  alone 
~barks.  This  is  a  difference  of  language  as  far 
as  it  goes.  This  is  written  to  foreshadow  the 
importance  of  the  study  of  language  as  an  in 
strument  of  ethnological  investigation. 

Again — what  if  the  dog-tribe  were  possessed 
of  the  practice  of  certain  human  arts,  and  if 
these  varied  with  the  variety  1  If  they  buried 
their  dead  ?  and  their  tombs  varied  with  the 
variety?  if  those  of  one  generation  lasted  for 
years,  decenniums,  or  centuries  ?  The  ethnol 
ogy  would  again  increase  in  complexity,  and  the 
data  would  again  be  increased.  The  graves  of 
an  earlier  generation  would  serve  as  unwritten 
records  of  the  habits  of  sepulture  with  an  earlier 
one.  This  is  written  to  foreshadow  the  impor 
tance  of  the  study  of  antiquities  as  an  instru 
ment  of  the  same  kind  with  philology. 

With  dogs  there  are  impossibilities.  True  ; 
but  they  serve  as  illustrations.  With  man  they 
are  realities — realities  which  make  philology 
and  archaeology  important  adjuncts  to  his  natu 
ral  history. 


1 8  ETHNOLOGY, 

"We  have  now  ascertained  the  character  of 
the  study  in  question  ;  and  seen  how  far  it  dif 
fers  from  history  properly  so-called — at  least  we 
have  done  so  sufficiently  for  the  purpose  of  de 
finition.  A  little  reflection  will  show  its  rela 
tions  to  certain  branches  of  science,  e.  g.  to  phy 
siology,  and  mental  science — a  relation  upon 
which  there  is  no  time  to  enlarge.  It  is  enough 
to  understand  the  existence  of  such  a  separate 
substantive  branch  of  knowledge  and  inquiry. 

What  is  the  amount  of  this  knowledge  ? 
This  is  proportionate  to  that  of  the  inquiry. 
What  has  this  been  ?  Less  than  we  are  prepar 
ed  to  expect. 

"  The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  Man." 

This  is  a  stock  quotation  on  the  subject. 

"  Homo  sum  ;  humani  nihil  a  me  alienum  puto." 

This  is  another.  Like  many  apophthegms  of 
the  same  kind,  they  have  more  currency  than 
influence,  and  are  better  known  than  acted  on. 
We  know  the  zoology  of  nine  species  out  of  ten 
amongst  the  lower  animals  better  than  that  of 
our  own  genus.  So  little  have  the  importance 
and  the  investigation  of  a  really  interesting  sub 
ject  been  commensurate. 

It  is  a  new  science — so  new  as  scarcely  to 
have  reached  the  period  of  adolescence.  Let  us 
ask  what  the  ancients  cared  about  it. 

We  do  not  look  for  systematic  science  in  the 


A   NEGLECTED    BRANCH   OF   KNOWLEDGE.       19 

Scriptures  ;  and  the  ethnology  which  we  derive 
from  them  consists  wholly  of  incidental  notices. 
These,  though  numerous,  are  brief.  They  apply, 
too,  to  but  a  small  portion  of  the  earth's  surface. 
That,  however,  is  one  of  pre-eminent  interest — 
the  cradle  of  civilization,  and  the  point  where  the 
Asiatic,  African,  and  European  families  come 
in  contact. 

Greece  helps  us  more  :  yet  Greece  but  little. 
The  genius  of  Thucydides  gave  so  definite  a 
character  to  history,  brought  it  so  exclusively  in 
contact  with  moral  and  political,  in  opposition  to 
physical,  phenomena,  and  so  thoroughly  made 
it  the  study  of  the  statesman  rather  than  of  the 
zoologist,  that  what  may  be  called  the  naturalist 
element,  excluded  at  the  present  time,  was  ex 
cluded  more  than  2000  years  ago.  How  widely 
different  this  from  the  slightly  earlier  Herodo- 
tean  record — the  form  and  spirit  of  which  lived 
and  died  with  the  great  father  of  historic  narra 
tive  !  The  history  of  the  Peloponnesian  war 
set  this  kind  of  writing  aside  for  ever,  and  the 
loss  of  what  the  earlier  prototype  might  have 
been  developed  into  is  a  great  item  in  the  price 
which  posterity  has  to  pay  for  the  *t^«  els  &el 
of  the  Athenian.  As  it  is,  however,  the  nine 
books  of  Herodotus  form  the  most  ethnological 
work  not  written  by  a  professed  and  conscious 
ethnologist.  Herodotus  was  an  unconscious  and 


20  GKEEK   OBSERVERS 

instinctive  one ;  and  his  ethnology  was  of  a 
sufficiently  comprehensive  character.  Manners 
he  noted,  and  physical  appearance  he  noted,  and 
language  he  noted ;  his  Scythian,  Median, 
^Egyptian,  and  other  glosses  having  the  same 
value  in  the  eyes  of  the  closet  philologist  of  the 
present  century,  as  the  rarer  fossils  of  some  old 
formation  have  with  the  geologist,  or  venerable 
coins  with  the  numismatic  archaeologist.  Let  his 
name  be  always  mentioned  with  reverence ;  for 
the  disrespectful  manner  in  which  his  testimony 
has  been  treated  by  some  recent  writers  impugns 
nothing  but  the  scholarship  of  the  cavillers. 

I  do  not  say  that  there  are  no  ethnological 
facts — it  may  be  that  we  occasion  ally  find  ethno 
logical  theories — in  the  Greek  writers  subse 
quent;  I  only  state  that  they  by  no  means 
answer  the  expectations  raised  by  the  names 
of  the  authors  and  the  opportunities  afford 
ed  by  the  nature  of  their  subjects.  Some 
thing  is  found  in  Hippocrates  in  the  way  of 
theory  as  to  the  effect  of  external  condition, 
something  in  Aristotle,  something  in  Plato — 
nothing,  however,  by  which  we  find  the  study 
of  Man  as  an  animal  recognized  as  a  separate 
substantive  branch  of  study.  More  than  this 
—in  works  where  the  description  of  new  popu 
lations  was  especially  called  for,  and  where  the 
evidence  of  the  writer  would  have  been  of  the 


OF   THE   VARIETIES   OF  MAN.  21 

most  unexceptionable  kind,  we  find  infinitely  less 
than  there  ought  to  be.  How  little  we  learn  of 
Persia  from  the  Cyropsedia,  or  of  Armenia  from 
the  Anabasis — yet  how  easily  might  Xenophon 
have  told  us  much  ! 

Amongst  the  successors  of  Aristotle,  we  find 
none  who  writes  a  treatise  *eQl  ^a^&guv — yet 
how  natural  the  subject,  and  how  great  the  op 
portunities  ! — great,  because  of  the  commerce  of 
the  Euxine,  and  the  institution  of  domestic 
slavery:  the  one  conducting  the  merchant  to 
the  extreme  Tanais,  the  other  filling  Athens  with 
Thracians,  and  Asia  Minor  with  Africans.  The 
advantages  which  the  Greeks  of  the  age  of 
Pericles  neglected,  are  the  advantages  which  the 
Brazilian  Portuguese  neglect  at  present,  and 
which,  until  lately,  both  the  English  and  the 
States-men  of  America  neglected  also.  And  the 
loss  has  been  great.  Like  time  and  tide,  eth 
nology  waits  for  no  man  ;  and,  even  as  the  In 
dian  of  America  disappears  before  the  European, 
so  did  certain  populations  of  antiquity.  The 
process  of  extinction  and  amalgamation  is  as 
old  as  history ;  and  whole  families  have  ma 
terially  altered  in  character  since  the  beginning 
of  the  historical  period.  The  present  popula 
tion  of  Bulgaria,  Wallachia,  and  Moldavia  is  of 
recent  introduction.  What  was  the  ancient? 
"Thracians  and  Getae,"  is  the  answer.  But  what 


22  ROMAN   WKITERS. 

were  they  ?  "  Germans,"  says  one  writer ; 
"Slavonians,"  another;  "an  extinct  race," 
another.  So  that  there  is  doubt  and  difference 
of  opinion.  Yet  we  know  some  little  about  them 
in  other  respects.  We  know  their  political  re 
lations  ;  a  little  of  their  creed,  and  manners ; 
the  names  of  some  of  their  tribes.  Their  place 
in  the  classification  of  the  varieties  of  our  species 
we  do  not  know ;  and  this  is  because,  though 
the  Greeks  wrote  the  civil,  they  neglected  the 
physical  history  of  Man. 

Thrace,  Asia  Minor,  and  the  Caucasus — these 
are  the  areas  for  which  the  ancients  might  easily 
have  left  descriptions,  and  for  which  they  neglect 
ed  to  do  so  ;  the  omission  being  irreparable. 

The  opportunities  of  the  Roman  were  greater 
than  those  of  the  Greek ;  and  they  were  better 
used.  Dissertations,  distantly  approaching  the 
character  of  physical  history,  occur  in  even  the 
pure  historical  writers  of  Greece.  I  allude  more 
especially  to  the  sketch  of  the  manners  and  mi 
grations  of  the  ancient  Greeks  in  the  first,  and 
the  history  of  the  Greek  colonization  of  Sicily 
in  the  sixth  book  of  Thucydides.  Parallels  to 
these  re-appear  in  the  Roman  writers  ;  and,  in 
some  cases,  their  proportion  to  the  rest  of  the 
work  is  considerable.  Sallust's  sketch  of 
^Northern  Africa,  Tacitus'  of  Jewish  history  are 
of  this  sort — and,  far  superior  to  either,  Caesar's 
account  of  Gaul  and  Britain. 


TACITUS HIS   GERMANIA.  23 

The  Germanic^  of  Tacitus  is  the  nearest  ap 
proach  to  proper  ethnology  that  antiquity  has 
supplied.  It  is  far,  however,  from  either  giv 
ing  us  the  facts  which  are  of  the  most  impor 
tance,  or  exhibiting  the  method  of  investigation 
by  which  ethnology  is  most  especially  contrast 
ed  with  history. 

But  the  true  measure  of  the  carelessness  of 
the  Romans  upon  these  points  is  to  be  taken 
by  the  same  rule  which  applied  to  that  of  the 
Greeks ;  i.  e.  the  contrast  between  their  oppor 
tunities  and  their  inquiry.  Northern  Italy,  the 
Tyrol,  Dalmatia,  Pannonia,  have  all  stood  un- 
described  in  respect  to  the  ancient  populations  ; 
yet  they  were  all  in  a  favorable  position  for 
description. 

If  the  Jewish,  Greek,  and  Roman  writers 
give  but  little,  the  literatures  derived  from  them 
give  less  ;  though,  of  course,  there  is  a  numer 
ous  selection  of  important  passages  to  be  made 
from  the  authors  of  the  Middle  Ages,  as  well  as 
from  the  Byzantine  historians.  Besides  which, 
there  is  the  additional  advantage  of  Greece  and 
Rome  having  ceased  to  be  the  only  countries 

*  The  value  of  Tacitus  as  an  authority  is  minutely  investi 
gated  ia  an  ethnological  edition  of  the  Germania  by  the  present 
writer,  now  in  course  of  publication.  The  object  of  the  present 
chapter  is  merely  to  show  the  extent  to  which  the  science  in 
question  is  of  recent,  rather  than  ancient,  origin. 


24:  MIDDLE    AGES. 

thought  worthy  of  being  written  about.  A 
Gothic,  a  Slavonic,  a  Moorish  history  now  make 
their  appearance.  Still  they  are  but  civil — not 
natural — histories.  However,  our  sphere  of  ob 
servation  increases,  the  members  of  the  human 
family  increase,  and  our  records  increase. 
Nevertheless,  the  facts  for  the  naturalist  occur 
but  incidentally. 

Of  the  Oriental  literature  I  can  only  give 
my  impression  /  and,  as  far  as  that  goes,  it  is  in 
favor  of  the  Chinese  statements  having  the  most, 
and  the  Indian  the  least  ethnological  value  ;  in 
deed,  the  former  nation  appears  to  have  con 
nected  the  notice  of  the  occupant  population 
with  the  notice  of  the  area  occupied,  with  laud 
able  and  sufficient  closeness.  I  believe,  too, 
that  several  differences  of  language  are  also 
carefully  noted.  Still,  such  ethnology  as  this 
supplies  is  an  educt  from  the  works  in  question, 
rather  than  their  subject. 

"We  now  come  to  times  nearer  our  own.  For 
a  sketch  like  the  present,  Science  begins  when 
the  classification  of  the  Human  Varieties  is  first 
attempted.  Meanwhile,  we  must  remember 
that  America  has  been  discovered,  and  that  our 
opportunities  now  differ  from  those  of  the 
ancients  not  merely  in  degree  but  in  kind.  The 
field  has  been  infinitely  enlarged  ;  and  the  world 
has  become  known  in  its  extremities  as  well  as 


BUFFON.  25 

in  its  middle  parts.  The  human  naturalists 
anterior  to  the  times  of  Buffon  and  Linnaeus  are 
like  the  great  men  before  Agamemnon.  A  mi 
nute  literary  history  would  doubtless  put  for 
ward  some  names  for  this  period ;  indeed  for 
some  departments  of  the  study  there  are  a  few 
great  ones.  Still  it  begins  with  the  times  of 
Linnaeus  and  Buffon — Buffon  first  in  merit. 
That  writer  held  that  a  General  History  of 
Jfan,  as  well  as  A.  Theory  of  the  Earth,  was  a 
necessary  part  of  his  great  work  ;  and,  as  far  as 
the  former  subject  is  concerned,  he  thought 
rightly.  It  is  this,  too,  in  which  he  has  succeed 
ed  best.  Thoroughly  appreciating  its  import 
ance,  he  saw  its  divisions  clearly ;  and  after 
eight  chapters  on  the  Growth  of  Man,  his  De 
cay,  and  his  Senses,  he  devotes  a  ninth,  as 
long  as  the  others  put  together,  to  the  considera 
tion  of  the  Varieties  of  the  Human  Species. 
"  Every  thing,"  he  now  writes,  "  which  we  have 
hitherto  advanced,  relates  to  Man  as  an  individ 
ual.  The  history  of  the  species  requires  a 
separate  detail,  of  which  the  principal  facts  can 
only  be  derived  from  the  varieties  that  are  found 
in  the  inhabitants  of  different  regions.  Of  these 
varieties,  the  first  and  most  remarkable  is  the  col 
or,  the  second  the  form  and  size,  and  the  third 
the  disposition.  Considered  in  its  full  extent, 
each  of  these  objects  might  afford  materials  fora 


26  LINNAEUS. 

volume*."  No  man  need  draw  a  clearer  line 
between  anthropology  and  ethnology  than  this. 
Of  the  systematic  classification,  which  philology 
has  so  especially  promoted,  no  signs  occur  in  his 
treatise;  on  the  other  hand,  his  appreciation  of 
the  effects  of  difference  in  physical  conditions  is 
well-founded  in  substance,  and  definitely  ex 
pressed.  To  this  he  attributes  the  contrast  be 
tween  the  Negro,  the  American,  and  the  Afri 
can,  and,  as  a  natural  result,  he  commits  him 
self  unequivocally  to  the  doctrine  of  the  unity 
of  the  species. 

Linnreus  took  less  cognizance  of  the  species 
to  which  he  belonged  ;  the  notice  in  the  first 
edition  of  the  Systema  Natures  being  as  fol 
lows  : — 

Q  UADRUPEDALIA. 

Corpm  hirsutum,  pedes  quatuor,  femince  vivi- 
parce,  lacttforce. 

ANTHROPOMORPIIA. 
Denies  primores  iv.  iitrinqne  vel  nulli. 

f  Europoms  albescens. 

HOMO  ....  Xosce  teipsum  .  .       .  .  H   J  Al»e™anus  rubesoens. 

j  Asiaticus  fuscus. 
t  Africanus  niger. 
Antcriorcs.  Posteriorcs. 

SJM'A Digiti  5.     Digiti  5.  Simla,  cauda  carens. 

Papio.     Satyrus. 

Posteriores  anterioribus  )  Ccrcopitheeiis. 
similes.  ^  Cynocephalus. 

BKADYPUS  . .  Digiti  3.  vel  2.  Digiti  3.     Ai— ignavus. 

Tardigradus. 
*  Barr?s  Translation,  vol.  iv.  p.  191. 


DATJBENTON.  27 

Now  both  Buffon  and  Linnseus  limit  their 
consideration  of  the  bodily  structure  of  man  to 
the  phenomena  of  color,  skin,  and  hair ;  in  other 
words,  to  the  so-called  soft  parts. 

From  the  Greek  word  osteon=bone,  we  have 
the  anatomical  term  osteology— the  study  of  the 
bony  skeleton. 

This  begins  with  the  researches  of  the  con 
temporary  and  helpmate  of  Buffon.  Daubenton 
first  drew  attention  to  the  "base  of  the  skull,  and, 
amongst  the  parts  thereof,  to  the  foramen  ovale 
most  especially.  Through  the  foramen  ovale 
the  spinal  chord  is  continued  into  the  brain,  or 
— changing  the  expression — the  brain  prolonged 
into  the  spinal  chord ;  whilst  by  its  attachments 
the  skull  is  connected  with  the  vertebral  column. 
The  more  this  point  of  junction — the  pivot  on 
which  the  head  turns — is  in  the  centre  of  the 
base  of  the  skull,  the  more  are  the  conditions  of 
the  erect  posture  of  man  fulfilled ;  the  contrary 
being  the  case  if  the  foramen  lie  backward,  as 
is  the  case  with  the  ape  as  compared  with  the 
Negro,  and,  in  some  instances,  with  the  Negro 
as  compared  with  the  European.  I  say  in  some 
instances,  because  the  backward  position  of  the 
foramen  ovale  in  the  Negro  is  by  no  means 
either  definite  or  constant.  Now  the  notice  of 
the  variations  of  the  position  of  the  foramen 
ovale — one  of  the  first  specimens  of  ethnological 


28  CAMPER BLUMENBACH, 

criticism  applied  to  the  hard  parts  of  the  human 
body — is  connected  with  the  name  of  Dauben- 
ton. 

The  study  of  the  skull — for  the  skeleton  is 
now  dividing  the  attention  of  investigators  with 
the  skin  and  hair — in  profile  is  connected  with 
that  of  Camper.  This  brings  us  to  his  well- 
known  facial  angle.  It  means  the  extent  to 
which  the  forehead  retreated;  sloping  back 
wards  from  the  root  of  the  nose  in  some  cases, 
and  in  others,  rising  perpendicularly  above  the 
face. 

Now  the  osteology  of  Daubenton  and  Cam 
per  was  the  osteology  that  Blumenbach  found 
when  he  took  up  the  subject.  It  was  something ; 
but  not  much. 

In  1790,  Blumenbach  published  his  anatom 
ical  description  of  ten  skulls — his  first  decade — 
drawn  up  with  the  special  object  of  showing 
how  certain  varieties  of  mankind  differed  from 
each  other  in  the  conformation  of  so  important 
an  organ  as  the  skull  of  a  reasonable  being — 
a  being  thereby  distinguished  and  character 
ized. 

He  continued  his  researches ;  publishing  at 
intervals  similar  decades,  to  the  number  of  six. 
In  1820,  he  added  to  the  last  a  pentad,  so  that 
the  whole  list  amounted  to  sixty-five. 

It  was  in  the  third  decade,  published  A.  D. 


HIS   GEOEGIAN  SKULL.  29 

1795,  that  an  unfortunate  skull  of  a  Georgian 
female  made  its  appearance.  The  history  of 
this  should  be  given.  Its  owner  was  taken  by 
the  Russians,  and  having  been  removed  to  Mos 
cow  died  suddenly.  The  body  was  examined 
by  Professor  Hiltenbrandt,  and  the  skull  pre 
sented  to  De  Asch  of  St.  Petersburg.  Thence  it 
reached  the  collection  of  Blumenbach,  of  which 
it  seems  to  have  been  the  gem — "universus  hujus 
cranii  habitus  tarn  elegans  et  venustus,  ut  et  tan- 
turn  non  semper  vel  indoctorum,  si  qui  collectio- 
nem  meam  contemplentur^  oculos  eximia  sua 
proportionis  formositate  feriat"  This  enco 
mium  is  followed  by  the  description.  JSTor  is 
this  all.  A  plaster  cast  of  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  busts  of  the  Townley  Museum  was  in 
possession  of  the  anatomist.  He  compared  the 
two ;  "  and  so  closely  did  they  agree  that  you 
might  take  your  oath  of  one  having  belonged 
to  the  other" — "adeo  istud  huic  respondere  vides^ 
ut  illud  hujus  prototype  quondam  inhcesisse 
pejerares"  Lastly,  he  closes  with  an  extract 
from  Chardin,  enthusiastically  laudatory  of  the 
beauty  of  the  women  of  Georgia,  and  adds  that 
his  skull  verifies  the  panegyric — "  Respondet 
ceteroquin  formosum  istud  cranium^  quod  sane 
pro  canone  ideali  habere  licet,  Us  quce  de  summa 
Georgians  gentis  puloritudine  vel  in  vulgus 
nota  sunt." 


30  THE   TEEM   CAUCASIAN. 

At  the  end  of  the  decade  in  question,  he  used 
the  epithets  Mongolian,  ^Ethiopian,  and  Cau 
casian  (Caucasia  varietas). 

In  the  next  (A.D.  1808),  he  speaks  of  the  ex 
cessive  beauty — the  ideal — the  normal  character 
of  his  Georgian  skull ;  and  speaks  of  his  osteo- 
logical  researches  having  established  a  quinary 
division  of  the  Human  Species ;  naming  them 
—1.  The  Caucasian;  2.  The  Mongolian;  3. 
The  ^Ethiopic ;  4.  The  American  ;  5.  The  Ma 
lay. 

Such  is  the  origin  of  the  term  Caucasian  •  a 
term  which  has  done  much  harm  in  Ethnology- 
a  term  to  which  Blumenbach  himself  #ave  an 

o 

undue  value,  and  his  followers  a  wholly  false 
import.  This  will  be  seen  within  a  few  pages. 
Blumenbach's  Caucasian  class  contained— 

1.  Most  of  the  Europeans. 

2.  The  Georgians,  Circassians,  and  other  fa 
milies  of  Caucasus. 

3.  The  Jews,  Arabs,  and  Syrians. 

In  the  same  year  with  the  fourth  decade  of 
Blumenbach,  John  Hunter  gave  testimony  of 
the  value  of  the  study  of  Man  to  Man,  by  a  dis 
sertation  with  a  quotation  from  Akenside  on  the 
title-page — 

'' the  spacious  West 

And  all  the  teeming  regions  of  the  South, 
Hold  not  a  quarry,  to  the  curious  flight 
Of  knowledge  half  so  tempting  or  so  fair, 
As  Man  to  Man." 


CUVIEB.  31 

His  tract  was  an  Inaugural  Dissertation,  and 
I  merely  mention  it  because  it  was  written  by 
Hunter,  and  dedicated  to  Robertson. 

Cuvier,  in  liis  JKegne  Animal,  gives  at  con 
siderable  length  the  anthropological  character 
istics  of  Man,  and  places  him  as  the  only  species 
of  the  genus  Homo,  the  only  genus  of  the  order 
]3imana=two-handed  ;  the  apes  being  Quad- 
rumana=;four-handed.  This  was  the  great  prac 
tical  recognition  of  Man  in  his  zoological  rela 
tions. 

In  respect  to  the  Ethnology,  the  classification 
of  Blumenbach  was  modified  —  and  that  by  in 
creasing  its  generality.  The  absolute  primary 
divisions  were  reduced  to  three — the  Malay  and 
the  American  being — not  without  hesitation — 
subordinated  to  the  Mongolian.  Meanwhile,  an 
additional  prominence  was  given  to  the  group 
which  contained  the  Australians  of  Australia, 
and  the  Papuans  of  New  Guinea.  Instead,  how 
ever,  of  being  definitely  placed,  it  was  left  for 
further  investigation. 

The  abuse  of  the  term  Caucasian,  wras  encou 
raged.  Blumenbach  had  merely  meant  that  his 
favorite  specimen  had  exhibited  the  best  points 
in  the  greatest  degree.  Cuvier  speaks  of  tra 
ditions  that  ascribe  the  origin  of  mankind  to 
the  mountain-range  so-called — traditions  of  no 
general  diffusion,  and  of  less  ethnological  value. 


32  PHYSIOLOGY. 

The  time  is  now  convenient  for  taking  a  retro 
spective  view  of  the  subject  in  certain  other  of 
its  branches.  Color,  hair,  skin,  bone,  stature — 
all  these  are  points  of  physical  conformation 
or  structure;  material  and  anatomical;  points 
which  the  callipers  or  the  scalpel  investigates. 
But  color,  hair,  skin  bone,  and  stature,  are  not 
the  only  characteristics  of  man ;  nor  yet  the 
only  points  wherein  the  members  of  his  species 
differ  from  each  other.  There  is  the  function 
as  well  as  the  organ ;  and  the  parts  of  our  body 
must  be  considered  in  regard  to  what  they  do  as 
well  as  with  reference  to  what  they  are.  This 
brings  in  the  questions  of  the  phenomena  of 
growth  and  decay, — the  average  duration  of 
life, — reproduction,  and  other  allied  functions. 
This,  the  physiological  rather  than  the  purely 
anatomical  part  of  the  subject,  requires  a  short 
notice  of  its  own.  A  priori,  we  are  inclined  to 
say  that  it  would  be  closely  united,  in  the  prac 
tice  of  investigation,  with  what  it  is  so  closely 
allied  as  a  branch  of  science.  Yet  such  has  not 
been  exactly  the  case.  The  anatomists  were 
physiologists  as  well;  and  when  Blumenbach 
described  a  skull,  he  certainly  thought  about 
the  power,  or  the  want  of  power,  of  the  brain 
which  it  contained.  But  the  speculators  in  phy 
siology  were  not  also  anatomists.  Such  specu 
lators,  however,  there  were.  An  historian  as- 


MONTESQUIEU HERDEK.  33 

pires  to  philosophy.  There  are  some  facts  which 
he  would  account  for ;  others  on  which  he  would 
build  a  system.  Hot  climates  favor  precocity  of 
the  sexual  functions.  They  also  precipitate  the 
decay  of  the  attractions  of  youth.  Hence,  a 
woman  who  is  a  mother  at  twelve,  has  outgrown 
her  beauty  at  twenty.  From  this  it  follows  that 
mental  power  and  personal  attractions  become, 
necessarily,  disunited.  Hence  the  tendency  on 
the  part  of  males  to  take  wives  in  succession ; 
whereby  polygamy  is  shown  to  have  originated 
in  a  law  of  nature. 

I  do  not  ask  whether  this  is  true  or  false.  I 
merely  remind  the  reader  that  the  moment  such 
remarks  occur,  the  natural  history  of  Man  has 
become  recognized  as  an  ingredient  in  the  civil. 

The  chief  early  writers  who  expanded  the 
real  and  supposed  facts  of  the  natural  history  of 
Man,  without  being  professed  ethnologists,  were 
Montesquieu  and  Herder.  By  advertising  the 
subject,  they  promoted  it.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
they  did  more. 

We  are  still  within  the  pale  of  physical 
phenomena ;  and  the  purely  intellectual,  men 
tal,  or  moral  characteristics  of  Man  have  yet  to 
be  considered.  What  divisions  were  founded 
upon  the  difference  between  the  arts  of  the  Negro 
and  the  arts  of  the  Parisian  ?  What  upon  the 
contrasts  between  the  despotisms  of  Asia  and 


34  VALUE   OF  LANGUAGE. 

the  constitutions  of  Europe?  What  between  the 
cannibalism  of  New  Zealand  and  the  compara 
tively  graminivorous  diet  of  the  Hindu  ?  There 
were  not  wanting  naturalists  who,  even  in  natu 
ral  history,  insisted  upon  the  high  value  of  such 
characters,  immaterial  and  supra-sensual  as  they 
were.  The  dog  and  fox,  the  hare  and  rabbit 
were  alike  in  form  ;  different  in  habits  and  tem 
per — yet  the  latter  fact  had  to  be  recognized. 
Nay,  more,  it  helped  to  verify  the  specific  dis 
tinctions  which  the  mere  differences  of  form 
might  leave  doubtful. 

All  that  can  be  said  upon  this  matter  is,  that 
no  branch  of  the  subject  was  earlier  studied  than 
that  which  dealt  with  the  manners  and  customs 
of  strange  nations  ;  whilst  no  branch  of  it  both 
was  and  is  half  so  defective  as  that  which  teach 
es  us  their  value  as  characteristics.  With  ten 
writers  familiar  with  the  same  facts,  there  shall 
be  ten  different  ways  of  appreciating  them  : — 

"  Manserunt  hodieque  manent  vestigia  ruris." 

In  the  year  1851,  this  is  the  weakest  part  of  the 
science. 

With  one  exception,  however — indefinite  and 
inappreciable  as  may  be  the  ethnological  value 
of  such  differences  as  those  which  exist  between 
the  superstitions,  moral  feelings,  natural  affec 
tions,  or  industrial  habits  of  different  families, 
there  is  one  great  intellectual  phenomenon  which 


VALUE   OF   LANGUAGE.  35 

in  definitude  yields  to  no  characteristic  what 
ever — I  mean  Language.  Whatever  may  be 
said  against  certain  over-statements  as  to  con 
stancy,  it  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  identity  of 
language  isprimd  facie  evidence  of  identity  of 
origin. 

No  reasonable  man  has  denied  this.  It  is 
not  conclusive,  but  prima  facie  it  undoubtedly 
is.  More  cannot  be  said  of  color,  skin,  hair, 
and  skeleton.  Possibly,  not  so  much. 

Again :  language,without  being  identical, may 
be  similar ;  just  as  individuals,  without  being 
brothers  or  sisters,  may  be  first  or  second  cousins. 
Similarity,  then,  i&primd  facie  evidence  of  rela 
tionship. 

Lastly,  this  similarity  may  be  weighed,  mea 
sured,  and  expressed  numerically  ;  an  important 
item  in  its  value.  Out  of  100  words  in  two  allied 
languages,  a  per-centage  of  any  amount  between 
1  and  99  may  coincide.  Language,  then,  is  a  de 
finite  test,  if  it  be  nothing  else.  It  has  another 
recommendation  ;  or,  perhaps  I  should  say  con 
venience.  It  can  be  studied  in  the  closet :  so 
that  for  one  traveller  who  describes  what  he  sees 
in  some  far-distant  country,  there  may  be  twenty 
scholars  at  work  in  the  libraries  of  Europe. 
This  is  only  partially  the  case  with  the  oste- 
ologist. 

Philological  ethnology  began  betimes  ;  long 


36  VALUE   OF   LANGUAGE. 

before  ethnology,  or  even  anthropology — which 
arose  earlier — had  either  a  conscious  separate 
existence  or  a  name.  It  began  even  before  the 
physical  researches  of  Buffbn. 

"  There  is  more  in  language  than  in  any  of 
its  productions."  Many  who  by  no  means  under 
value  the  great  productions  of  literature,  join  in 
this  ;  indeed,  it  is  only  saying  that  the  Greek 
language  is  a  more  wonderful  fact  than  the  Ho 
meric  poems,  or  the  ^Eschylean  drama.  This, 
however,  is  only  an  expression  of  admiration  at 
the  construction  of  so  marvellous  an  instrument 
as  human  speech. 

"  When  history  is  silent,  language  is  evi 
dence."  This  is  an  explicit  avowal  of  its  value 
as  an  instrument  of  investigation. 

I  cannot  affiliate  either  of  these  sayings^ 
though  I  hold  strongly  with  both.  They  must 
prepare  us  for  a  new  term — the  philological 
school  of  ethnology ',  the  philological  pri?iciple  of 
classification,  the  philological  test.  The  worst 
that  can  be  said  of  this  is,  that  it  was  isolated. 
The  philologists  began  work  independently  of 
the  anatomists,  and  the  anatomists  independent 
ly  of  the  philologists.  Arid  so,  with  one  great 
exception,  they  have  kept  on. 

Pigafetta,  one  of  the  circumnavigators  with 
Magalhaens,  was  the  first  who  collected  speci 
mens  of  the  unlettered  dialects  of  the  countries 
that  afforded  opportunities. 


HERVAS LEIBNITZ RELAND.  37 

The  Abbe  Ilervas,  in  the  17th  century,  pub 
lished  his  Catalogue  of  Tongues,  and  Arithmetic 
of  Nations,  parts  of  a  large  and  remarkable 
work,  the  Saggio  del  Universo.  His  data  he 
collected  by  means  of  an  almost  unlimited  cor 
respondence  with  the  Jesuit  missionaries  of  the 
Propaganda. 

The  all-embracing  mind  of  Leibnitz  had  not 
only  applied  itself  to  philology,  but  had  clearly 
seen  its  bearing  upon  history.  A  paper  on  the 
Basque  language  is  a  sample  of  the  ethnology  of 
the  inventor  of  Fluxions. 

Reland  wrote  on  the  wide  distribution  ol  the 
Malay  tongue ;  criticised  certain  vocabularies 
from  the  South-Sea  Islands  of  Hoorn,  Egmont, 
Ticopia  (then  called  Cocos  Island),  and  Solo 
mon's  Archipelago,  and  gave  publicity  to  a  fact 
which  even  now  is  mysterious — the  existence  of 
Malay  words  in  the  language  of  Madagascar. 

In  1801,  Adelung's  MitJiridates  appeared, 
containing  specimens  of  all  the  known  lan 
guages  of  the  world;  a  work  as  classical  to  the 
comparative  philologist  as  Blackstone's  Com 
mentaries  are  to  the  English,  lawyer.  Yater's 
Supplement  (1821)  is  a  supplement  to  Adelung ; 
Jiilg's  (1845)  to  Yater's. 

Klaproth's  is  the  other  great  classic  in  this 
department.  His  Asia  Polyglotta  and  Spra- 
cTiatlas  gives  us  the  classification  of  all  the  fami- 


38  RELATION    OF   ETHNOLOGY 

lies  of  Asia,  according  to  the  vocabularies  repre 
senting  their  languages.  Whether  a  compari 
son  between  their  different  grammars  would  do 
the  same  is  doubtful ;  since  it  by  no  means  fol 
lows  that  the  evidence  of  the  two  coincides. 

Klaproth  and  Adelung  have  the  same  pro 
minence  in  philological,  that  Buffon  and  Blumen- 
bach  have  in  zoological  ethnology. 

Blumenbach  appreciated  the  philological 
method,  but  the  first  who  combined  the  two 
was  Dr.  Prichard.  His  profession  gave  him  the 
necessary  physiology  ;  and  that  he  was  a  philo 
logist  amongst  philologists,  is  shown  not  only  by 
numerous  details  scattered  throughout  his  writ 
ings,  but  by  his  "  Eastern  Origin  of  the  Celtic 
Nations  " — the  most  definite  and  desiderated  ad 
dition  that  has  been  made  to  ethnographical 
philology.  I  say  nothing  about  the  details  of 
Dr.  Prichard's  great  work.  Let  those  who  doubt 
its  value,  try  to  do  without  it. 

But  there  is  still  something  wanting.  The 
relation  of  the  sciences  to  the  other  branches  of 
knowledge  requires  fixing.  With  anthropology 
the  case  is  pretty  clear.  It  comes  into  partial 
contact  with  the  naturalist  sciences  (or  those 
based  on  the  principle  of  classification)  and  the 
biological  (or  those  based  on  the  idea  of  organi 
zation  and  life). 

Ethnology,  however,  is  more  undecided  in 


TO   THE   OTHER   SCIENCES.  39 

respect  to  position.  If  it  be  but  a  form  of  his 
tory,  its  place  amongst  the  inductive  sciences  is 
equivocal ;  since  neither  the  laws  which  it  de 
velops  nor  the  method  of  pursuing  it  give  it  a 
place  here.  These  put  it  in  the  same  category 
with  a  series  of  records  taken  from  the  testi 
mony  of  witnesses,  or  with  a  book  of  travels — 
literary,  but  not  scientific.  And  so  it  really  is  to 
a  certain  extent.  Two  remarkable  productionSj 
however,  have  determined  its  relations  to  be 
otherwise. 

In  Sir  C.  Lyell's  "Principles  of  Geology,"  we 
have  an  elaborate  specimen  of  reasoning  from 
the  known  to  the  unknown,  and  of  the  infer 
ence  of  causes  from  effects.  It  would  have  been 
discreditable  to  our  philosophy  if  such  a  sample 
of  logic  put  in  practice  had  been  disregarded. 

Soon  after,  came  forth  the  pre-eminently  sug 
gestive  works,  pa/r  nobile,  of  the  present  Master 
of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  Here  we  are 
taught  that  in  the  sciences  of  geology,  ethnol 
ogy,  and  archaeology,  the  method  determines  the 
character  of  the  study  ;  and  that  in  all  these  we 
argue  backwards.  Present  effects  we  know ; 
we  also  know  their  causes  as  far  as  the  histori 
cal  period  goes  back.  When  we  get  beyond 
this,  we  can  still  reason — reason  from  the  ex 
perience  that  the  historical  period  has  supplied. 
Climate,  for  instance,  and  certain  other  con- 


40  EELATION    OF   ETHNOLOGY 

ditions  have  some  effect;  within  the  limits  of 
generation  a  small,  within  that  of  a  millennium  a 
larger  one.  Hence,  before  we  dismiss  a  differ 
ence  as  inexplicable,  we  must  investigate  the 
changes  that  may  have  produced  it,  the  con 
ditions  which  may  have  determined  those 
changes,  and  the  time  required  from  the  exhi 
bition  of  their  influence. 

In  Dr.  Prichard's  "Anniversary  Address," 
delivered  before  the  Ethnological  Society  of  Lon 
don  in  1847 — a  work  published  after  the 
death  of  its  illustrious  author — this  relationship 
to  Geology  is  emphatically  recognized  : — "  Geol 
ogy,  as  every  one  knows,  is  not  an  account  of 
what  nature  produces  in  the  present  day,  but  of 
what  it  has  long  ago  produced.  It  is  an  inves 
tigation  of  the  changes  which  the  surface  of  our 
planet  has  undergone  in  ages  long  since  past. 
The  facts  on  which  the  inferences  of  geology  are 
founded,  are  collected  from  various  parts  of 
Natural  History.  The  student  of  geology  in 
quires  into  the  processes  of  nature  which  are  at 
present  going  on,  but  this  is  for  the  purpose  of 
applying  the  knowledge  so  acquired  to  an  in 
vestigation  of  what  happened  in  past  times,  and 
of  tracing,  in  the  different  layers  of  the  earth's 
crust — displaying,  as  they  do,  relics  of  various 
forms  of  organic  life — the  series  of  the  repeated 
creations  which  have  taken  place.  This  investi 
gation  evidently  belongs  to  History  or  Archwol- 


TO   THE   OTHEB   SCIENCES.  41 

ogy,  rather  than  to  what  is  termed  Natural  His 
tory.  By  a  learned  writer,  whose  name  will  ever 
be  connected  with  the  annals  of  the  British  As 
sociation,  the  term  Palaeontology  has  been  aptly 
applied  to  sciences  of  this  department,  for  which 
Physical  Archaeology  may  be  used  as  a  sy 
nonym.  Paleontology  includes  both  Geology 
and  Ethnology.  Geology  is  the  archaeology  of  the 
globe — ethnology  that  of  its  human  inhabitants." 

"When  ethnology  loses  its  paleeontological 
character,  it  loses  half  its  scientific  elements ; 
and  the  practical  and  decided  recognition  of  this 
should  be  the  characteristic  of  the  English  school 
of  ethnologists. 

This  chapter  will  conclude  with  the  notice  of 
the  bearings  of  the  palseontological  method  upon 
one  of  the  most  difficult  parts  of  ethnology,  viz. : 
the  identification  of  ancient  populations,  or  the 
distribution  of  the  nations  mentioned  by  the 
classical,  scriptural  and  older  oriental  writers 
amongst  the  existing  or  extinct  stocks  and  fami 
lies  of  mankind. 

There  are  the  Etruscans — who  were  they? 
The  Pelasgians — who  were  they  ?  The  Huns  that 
overrun  Europe  in  the  fifth  century ;  the  Gimme 
rii  that  devastated  Asia,  900  years  earlier  ?  Arch 
aeology  answers  some  of  these  questions,  and  the 
testimony  of  ancient  writers  helps  us  in  others- 
Yet  both  mislead,  perhaps,  almost  as  often  as 
3* 


42  CRITICISM 

they  direct  us  rightly.  If  it  were  not  so,  there 
would  be  less  discrepancy  of  opinion. 

Nevertheless,  up  to  the  present  time  the  pri 
mary  fact  concerning  any  such  populations  has 
always  been  the  testimony  of  some  ancient  his 
torian  or  geographer,  and  the  first  question  that 
has  been  put  is,  What  say  Tacitus — Strabo — 
Herodotus — Ptolemy,  &c.,  &c.?  In  critical  hands 
the  inquiries  go  further,  and  statements  are 
compared,  testimonies  weighed  in  a  balance 
against  each  other,  the  opportunities  of  knowing, 
and  the  honesty  in  recording  of  the  respective 
authors  investigated.  In  this  way  a  sketch  of  an 
cient  Greece,  by  Thucydides,  has  a  value  which 
the  authority  of  a  lesser  writer  would  fail  to 
give  it,  and  so  on  with  others.  Nevertheless, 
what  Thucydides  wrote,  he  wrote  from  report 
and  inferences — report,  most  probably,  carefully 
weighed,  and  inferences  legitimately  drawn. 
Yet  sources  of  error,  for  which  he  is  not  to  be 
held  responsible,  are  innumerable.  He  went 
upon  hearsay  evidence — he  sifted  it,  perhaps  ; 
but  still  he  went  upon  hearsay  evidence  only. 
How  do  we  value  such  evidence  ?  By  the  natu 
ral  probabilities  of  the  account  it  constitutes. 
By  what  means  do  we  ascertain  these  ? 

I  submit  there  is  but  one  measure  here — the 
existing  state  of  things  as  either  known  to  our 
selves,  or  known  to  contemporaries  capable  of 
learning  them  at  the  period  nearest  the  time 


OF   ANCIENT   WRITERS.  43 

under  consideration.  This  we  examine  as  the 
effect  of  some  antecedent  cause — or  series  of 
causes.  Hov  ui&  •  says  the  scholar.  On  the  dic- 
turn  of  such  or  such  an  author.  Hov  O-TW  ;  says 
the  Archimedean  ethnologist.  On  the  last  test 
ified  fact. 

Of  the  unsatisfactory  character  of  anything 
short  of  contemporary  testimony  in  the  identifi 
cation  of  ancient  nations,  the  pages  and  pages 
that  nine-tenths  of  the  historians  bestow  upon 
the  mysterious  Pelasgi  is  a  specimen.  Add 
Eiebuhr  to  Miiller,  and  Thirlwall  to  Mebuhr — 
Pelion  to  Ossa,  and  Olympus  to  Pelion — and 
what/#c&s  do  we  arrive  at — facts  that  we  may 
rely  on  as  such,  facts  supported  by  contempo 
rary  evidence,  and  recorded  under  opportunities 
of  being  ascertained  ?  Just  the  three  recognized 
by  Mr.  Grote  ;  viz.  that  their  language  was  spo 
ken  at  Khreston — that  it  was  spoken  at  Plakese 
— that  it  differed  in  some  unascertained  degree, 
from  the  Greek. 

This  is  all  that  the  ethnologist  recognizes ; 
and  from  this  he  argues  as  he  best  can.  Every 
fact,  less  properly  supported  by  either  first-hand 
or  traceable  evidence,  he  treats  with  indifference. 
It  may  be  good  in  history ;  but  it  is  not  good 
for  him.  He  has  too  much  use  to  put  it  to, 
too  much  to  build  upon  it,  too  much  argument 
to  work  out  of  it,  to  allow  it  to  be  other  than 
unimpeachable. 


44  TACITUS. 

Again — Tacitus  carries  his  Germania  as  far 
as  the  Piemen,  so  as  to  include  the  present 
countries  of  Mecklenburg,  Pomerania,  Branden 
burg,  West  and  East  Prussia,  and  Courland. 
Is  this  improbable  in  itself?  No.  The  area 
is  by  no  means  immoderately  large.  Is  it 
improbable  when  we  take  the  present  state  of 
those  countries  in  question?  No.  They  are 
German  at  present.  Is  it  improbable  in  any 
case  ?  and  if  so,  in  what  ?  Yes.  It  becomes 
improbable  when  we  remember  that  the  present 
Germans  have  been  as  unequivocally  and  un 
doubtedly  recent  immigrants  for  the  parts  in 
question,  as  are  the  English  of  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  that  at  the  beginning  of  the 
historical  period  the  whole  of  them  were  Sla 
vonic,  with  nothing  but  the  phraseology  of  Taci 
tus  to  prevent  us  from  believing  that  they 
always  had  been  so.  But  it  is  also  improbable 
that  so  respectable  a  writer  as  Tacitus  should  be 
mistaken.  Granted.  And  here  begins  the  con 
flict  of  difficulties.  Nevertheless,  the  primary 
ethnological  fact  is  the  state  of  things  as  it 
existed  when  the  countries  under  consideration 
were  first  accurately  known,  taken  along  with 
the  probability  or  improbability  of  its  having 
so  existed  for  a  certain  period  previous,  as  com 
pared  with  the  probability  or  improbability  of 
the  migrations  and  other  assumptions  necessary 
for  its  recent  introduction. 


ETHNOLOGY.  45 


CHAPTER  II. 

Ethnology — its  objcts — the  chief  problems  connected  with  it— 
prospective  questions — transfer  of  populations — Extract  from 
Knox — correlation  of  certain  parts  of  the  body  to  certain  ex 
ternal  influences — parts  less  subject  to  such  influences — retro 
spective  questions — the  unity  or  non-unity  of  our  species — 
opinions — plurality  of  species — multiplicity  of  protoplasts — - 
doctrine  of  development — Dokkos — Extract — antiquity  of 
our  species — its  geographical  origin — the  term  race, 

In  Cuvier — as  far  as  he  goes — we  find  the 
anthropological  view  of  the  subject  predominant ; 
and  this  is  what  we  expect  from  the  nature  of 
the  work  in  which  it  occurs :  the  degree  in 
which  one  genus  or  species  differs  from  the 
species  or  genus  next  to  it  being  the  peculiar 
consideration  of  the  systematic  naturalist.  To 
exhibit  our  varieties  would  have  required  a 
special  monograph. 

In  Pri chard,  on  the  contary,  ethnology  pre 
ponderates  ;  of  anthropology,  in  the  strict  sense 
of  the  word,  there  being  but  little ;  and  the  eth 
nology  is  of  a  broad  and  comprehensive  kind. 
Description  there  is,  and  classification  there  is  ; 
but,  besides  this,  there  is  a  great  portion  of  the 
work  devoted  to  what  may  be  called  Ethnologi 
cal  Dynamics,  i.  e.  the  appreciation  of  the  effect 


46  WHEWELL PKICIIARD LAWRANCE. 

of  the  external  conditions  of  climate,  latitude, 
relative  sea-level  and  the  like  upon  the  human 
body. 

Prichard  is  the  great  repertory  of  facts  ;  and 
read  with  WhewelPfl  commentary  it  gives  us  the 
Science  in  a  form  sufficiently  full  for  the  purposes 
of  detail,  and  sufficiently  systematic  for  the 
basis  of  further  generalization.  Still,  it  must  be 
read  with  the  commentery  already  mentioned. 
If  not,  it  fails  in  its  most  intellectual  element, 
and  becomes  a  system  of  simple  records,  rather 
than  a  scries  of  subtle  and  peculiar  inferences. 
So  read,  however,  it  gives  us  our  facts  and  clas 
sifications  in  a  working  form.  In  other  words, 
the  Science  has  now  taken  its  true  place  and 
character. 

If  more  than  this  be  needed — and  for  the 
anthropology,  it  may  be  thought  by  some  that 
Cuvier  is  too  brief,  and  Prichard  too  exclusively 
ethnological — the  work  of  Lawrance  forms  the 
complement.  These,  along  with  Adelung  and 
Klaproth,  form  the  Thesaurus  Ethnoloyicus. 
But  the  facts  which  they  supply  are  like  the 
sword  of  the  Mahometan  warrior.  Its  value 
depended  on  the  arm  that  wielded  it;  and  such 
is  the  case  here.  ]STo  book  has  yet  been  written 
which  can  implicitly  be  taken  for  much  more 
than  its  facts.  Its  inferences  and  classification 
must  be  criticised.  Be  this,  however,  as  it  may, 


MILL.  47 

in  A.  D.  1846  Mr.  Mill  writes,  that  "  concerning 
the  physical  nature  of  man,  as  an  organized 
being,  there  has  been  much  controversy,  which 
can  only  be  terminated  by  the  general  acknow 
ledgment  and  employment  of  stricter  rules  of 
induction  than  are  commonly  recognized ;  there 
is,  however,  a  considerable  body  of  truth  which 
all  who  have  attended  to  the  subject  consider  to 
be  fully  established,  nor  is  there  now  any  radi 
cal  imperfection  in  the  method  observed  in  this 
department  of  science  by  its  most  distinguished 
modern  teachers." 

This  could  not  have  been  written  thirty  years 
ago.  The  department  of  science  would,  then, 
have  been  indefinite  ;  and  the  teachers  would  not 
have  been  distinguished. 

It  may  now  be  as  well  to  say  what  Ethnology 
and  Anthropology  are  not.  Their  relations  to 
history  have  been  considered.  Archceology  il 
lustrates  each ;  yet  the  moment  that  it  is  con 
founded  with  either,  mischief  follows.  Psy 
chology,  or  the  Science  of  the  laws  of  Mind, 
has  the  same  relation  to  them  as  Physiology — 
mutatis  mutandis;  i.  e.  putting  Mind  in  the 
place  of  Body. 

But  nearer  than  either  are  its  two  subordi 
nate  studies  of  Ethology,*  or  the  Science  of 
Character,  by  which  we  determine  the  kind  of 

*  From  the  Greek  word  (r)0oj)  ethos  =  character. 


48  ETHNOLOGY. 

character  produced  in  conformity  with  the  laws 
of  Mind,  by  any  set  of  circumstances,  physical 
as  well  as  moral;  and  the  Science  of  Society 
which  investigates  the  action  and  reaction  of  as 
sociated  masses*  on  each  other. 

Such,  then,  is  our  Science;  which  the  princi 
ple  of  Division  of  Labor  requires  to  be  marked 
off  clearly  in  order  to  be  worked  advantageous 
ly.  And  now  we  ask  the  nature  of  its  objects. 
It  has  not  much  to  do  with  the  establishment  of 
any  laws  of  remarkable  generality  ;  a  circum 
stance  which,  in  the  eyes  of  some,  may  subtract 
from  its  value  as  a  science  ;  the  nearest  approach 
to  anything  of  this  kind  being  the  general  state 
ment  implied  in  the  classifications  themselves. 
Its  real  object  is  the  solution  of  certain  problems 
— problems  which  it  investigates  by  its  own 
peculiar  method — and  problems  of  sufficient 
height  and  depth  and  length  and  breadth  to 
satisfy  the  most  ambitious.  All  these  are  refer 
able  to  two  heads,  and  connect  themselves  with 
either  the  past  or  the  future  history  of  our  spe 
cies  ;  its  origin  or  destination. 

"We  see  between  the  Kegro  and  the  Ameri 
can  a  certain  amount  of  difference.  Has  this 
always  existed?  If  not,  how  was  it  brought 

*  Called  by  Comte  Sociology,  a  name  half  Latin  and  half 
Greek,  and  consequently  too  barbarous  to  be  used,  if  its  use  can 
be  avoided. 


KNOX.  49 

about  ?  By  what  influences  ?  In  what  time  ? 
Quickly  or  slowly  ?  These  questions  point 
backwards,  and  force  upon  us  the  consideration 
of  what  has  ~been. 

But  the  next  takes  us  forwards.  Great  ex 
periments  in  the  transfer  of  populations  from 
one  climate  to  another  have  gone  on  ever  since 
the  discovery  of  America,  and  are  going  on 
now ;  sometimes  westwards  as  to  the  New 
World  ;  sometimes  eastwards  as  to  Australia 
and  ~NQW  Zealand  ;  now  from  Celtic  populations 
like  Ireland  ;  now  from  Gothic  countries  like 
England  and  Germany ;  now  from  Spain  and 
Portugal ; — to  say  nothing  of  the  equally  great 
phenomenon  of  Negro  slavery  being  the  real  or 
supposed  condition  of  American  prosperity. 
"Will  this  succeed  ?  Ask  this  at  Philadelphia,  or 
Lima,  Sydney,  or  Auckland,  and  the  answer  is 
pretty  sure  to  be  in  the  affirmative.  Ask  it  of 
one  of  our  English  anatomists.  His  answer  is 
as  follows  : — "  Let  us  attend  now  to  the  greatest 
of  all  experiments  ever  made  in  respect  of  the 
transfer  of  a  population  indigenous  to  one  con 
tinent,  and  attempting  by  emigration  to  take 
possession  of  another ;  to  cultivate  it  with  their 
own  hands ;  to  colonize  it ;  to  persuade  the 
world,  in  time,  that  they  are  the  natives  of  the 
newly  occupied  land.  Northern  America  and 
Australia  furnished  the  fields  of  this,  the  greatest 


50  KNOX. 

of  experiments.  Already  lias  the  horse,  the 
sheep,  the  ox,  become  as  it  were  indigenous  to 
these  lands.  Xature  did  not  place  them  there 
at  first,  yet  they  seem  to  thrive  and  flourish,  and 
multiply  exceedingly.  Yet,  even  as  regards 
these  domestic  animals,  we  cannot  be  quite  cer 
tain.  "Will  they  eventually  be  self-supporting  ? 
Will  they  supplant  the  llama,  the  kangaroo,  the 
buffalo,  the  deer  ?  or  in  order  to  effect  this,  will 
they  require  to  be  constantly  renovated  from 
Europe  ?  If  this  be  the  contingency,  then  the 
acclimatation  is  not  perfect.  How  is  it  with 
man  himself  ?  The  man  planted  there  by  na 
ture,  the  Red-Indian,  differs  from  all  others  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  ;  he  gives  way  before  the 
European  races,  the  Saxon  and  the  Celtic  ;  the 
Celt,  Iberian,  and  the  Lusitanian  in  the  south  ; 
the  Celt  and  the  Saxon  in  the  north. 

"  Of  the  tropical  regions  of  the  New  World, 
I  need  not  speak  ;  every  one  knows  that  none 
but  those  whom  nature  placed  there  can  live 
there  ;  that  no  Europeans  can  colonize  a  tropi 
cal  country.  But  may  there  not  be  some  doubts  of 
their  self-support  in  milder  regions  ?  Take  the 
Northern  States  themselves.  There  the  Saxon 
and  the  Celt  seem  to  thrive  beyond  all  that  is 
recorded  in  history.  But  are  we  quite  sure 
th  at  this  is  fated  to  be  permanent  ?  Annualy  from 
Europe  is  poured  a  hundred  thousand  men  and 


KNOX.  51 

women  of  the  best  blood  of  tlie  Scandinavian, 
and  twice  the  number  of  the  pure  Celt ;  and  so 
long  as  this  continues,  he  is  sure  to  thrive.  But 
check  it,  arrest  it  suddenly,  as  in  the  case  of 
Mexico  and  Peru  ;  throw  the  onus  of  reproduc 
tion  upon  the  population,  no  longer  European, 
but  a  struggle  between  the  European  alien  and 
his  adopted  father-land .  The  climate  ;  the  for 
ests  ;  the  remains  of  the  aborigines  not  yet  ex 
tinct  ;  last,  not  least,  that  unknown  and  mysteri 
ous  degradation  of  life  and  energy,  which  in  an 
cient  times  seems  to  have  decided  the  fate  of  all 
the  Phoenician,  Grecian,  and  Coptic  colonies. 
Cut  off  from  their  original  stock,  they  gradually 
withered  and  faded,  and  finally  died  away. 
The  Phoenician  never  became  acclimatized  in 
Africa,  nor  in  Cornwall,  nor  in  "Wales  ;  vestiges 
of  his  race,  it  is  true,  still  remain,  but  they  are 
mere  vestiges.  Peru  and  Mexico  are  fast  retro 
grading  to  their  primitive  condition ;  may  not 
the  Northern  States,  under  similar  circumstan 
ces,  do  the  same  ? 

"  Already  the  United  States  man  differs  in 
appearance  from  the  European  :  the  ladies  early 
lose  their  teeth  ;  in  both  sexes  the  adipose  cel 
lular  cushion  interposed  between  the  skin  and 
the  aponeuroses  and  muscles  disappears,  or,  at 
least,  loses  its  adipose  portion ;  the  muscles  be 
come  stringy,  and  show  themselves  ;  the  tendons 


52  KNOX. 

appear  on  the  surface  ;  symptoms  of  premature 
decay  manifest  themselves.  Now  what  do  these 
signs,  added  to  the  uncertainty  of  infant  life  in 
the  Southern  States,  and  the  smallness  of  their 
families  in  the  Northern,  indicate?  Not  the 
conversion  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  into  the  Red- 
Indian,  but  warnings  that  the  climate  has  not 
been  made  for  him,  nor  he  for  the  climate. 

"  See  what  even  a  small  amount  of  insulation 
has  done  for  the  French  Celt  in  Lower  Canada. 
Look  at  the  race  there !  Small  men,  small 
horses,  small  cattle,  still  smaller  carts,  ideas 
smallest  of  all ;  he  is  not  even  the  Celt  of  modern 
France !  He  is  the  French  Celt  of  the  Regen 
cy,  the  thing  of  Louis  XIII.  Stationary — abso 
lutely  stationary — his  numbers,  I  believe,  de 
pend  on  the  occasional  admixture  of  fresh  blood 
from  Europe.  He  has  increased  to  a  million 
since  his  first  settlement  in  Canada  ;  but  much 
of  this  has  come  from  Britain,  and  not  from 
France.  Give  us  the  statistics  of  the  original 
families  who  keep  themselves  apart  from  the 
fresh  blood  imported  into  the  province.  Let  us 
have  the  real  and  solid  increase  of  the  original 
habitant,  as  they  are  pleased  to  call  themselves, 
and  then  we  may  calculate  on  the  result. 

"  Had  the  colony  been  left  to  itself,  cut  off 
from  Europe,  for  a  century  or  two,  it  is  my  be 
lief  that  the  forest  and  the  buffalo,  and  the  Red- 


ADAPTATION.  53 

Indian,  would  have  pushed  him  into  the  St. 
Lawrence."* 

I  give  no  opinion  as  to  the  truth  of  the  ex 
tract  ;  remarking  that,  whether  right  or  wrong, 
it  is  forcibly  and  confidently  expressed.  All  that 
the  passage  has  to  do  is  to  illustrate  the  charac 
ter  of  the  question.  It  directs  our  consideration 
to  what  will  l>e. 

To  work  out  questions  in  either  of  these 
classes,  there  must,  of  course,  be  some  reference 
to  the  general  operations  of  climate,  food,  and 
other  influences ; — operations  which  imply  a 
correlative  susceptibility  of  modification  on  the 
part  of  the  human  organism. 

In  a  well-constructed  machine,  the  different 
parts  have  a  definite  relation  to  each.  The 
greater  the  resistance,  the  thicker  the  ropes  and 
chains ;  and  the  thicker  the  ropes  and  chains, 
the  stronger  the  pulleys ;  the  stronger  the  pul 
leys,  the  greater  the  force,  and  so  on  throughout. 
Delicate  pulleys  with  heavy  ropes,  or  light 
lines  with  bulky  pulleys,  would  be  so  much  pow 
er  wasted.  The  same  applies  to  the  skeleton. 
If  the  muscle  be  massive,  the  bone  to  which  it  is 
attached  must  be  firm ;  otherwise  there  is  a  dis 
proportion  of  parts.  In  this  respect  the  organ 
ized  and  animated  body  agrees  with  a  common 
machine,  the  work  of  human  hands.  It  agrees 
with,  but  it  also  surpasses  it,  It  has  an  internal 

*  Knox,  Races  of  Men,  pp.  73,  74, 


54  ADAPTATION. 

power  of  self-adjustment.  No  amount  of  work 
would  convert  a  thin  line  into  a  strong  rope,  or 
a  light  framework  into  a  strong  one.  If  bulk 
be  wanted,  it  must  be  given  in  the  first  instance. 
But  what  is  it  with  the  skeleton,  the  framework 
to  the  muscles  ?  It  has  the  power  of  adapting  it 
self  to  the  stress  laid  upon  it.  The  food  that  we 
live  upon  is  of  different  degrees  of  hardness  and 
toughness  ;  and  the  harder  and  tougher  it  is,  the 
more  work  is  there  for  the  muscles  of  the  lower 
jaw.  But,  as  these  work,  they  grow ;  for — other 
things  being  equal — size  is  power  ;  and  as  they 
grow,  other  parts  must  grow  also.  There  are 
the  bones.  How  they  grow  is  a  complex  ques 
tion.  Sometimes  a  smooth  surface  becomes 
rough,  a  fine  bone  coarse ;  sometimes  a  short 
process  becomes  lengthened,  or  a  narrow  one 
broadens;  sometimes  the  increase  is  simple  or  ab 
solute,  and  the  bone  in  question  changes  its  char 
acter  without  affecting  that  of  the  parts  in  con 
tact  with  it.  But  frequently  there  is  a  compli 
cation  of  changes,  and  the  development  of  one 
bone  takes  place  at  the  expense  of  another ;  the 
relations  of  the  different  portions  of  parts  of  a 
skeleton  being  thus  altered. 

A  skeleton,  then,  may  be  modified  by  the 
action  of  its  own  muscles ;  in  other  words,  w^her- 
ever  there  are  muscles  that  are  liable  to  an  in 
crease  of  mass,  there  are  bones  similarly  sus- 


THE    IDEA.  55 

ceptible — bones  upon  which  asperities,  ridges, 
or  processes  may  be  developed — bones  from 
which  asperities,  ridges,  or  processes  may  disap 
pear,  and  bones  of  which  the  relative  propor 
tions  may  be  varied.  In  order,  however,  that 
this  must  take  place,  there  must  be  the  muscu 
lar  action  which  determines  it. 

Now  this  applies  to  the  hard  parts,  or  the 
skeleton ;  and  as  it  is  generally  admitted,  that 
if  the  bony  framework  of  the  body  can  be  thus 
modified  by  the  action  of  its  own  muscles,  the 
extreme  conditions  of  heat,  light,  aliment,  mois 
ture,  &c.,  will,  a  fortiori,  affect  the  soft  parts, 
such  as  the  skin  and  adipose  tissue.  Neither 
have  any  great  difficulties  been  raised  in  respect 
to  the  varieties  of  color  in  the  iris,  and  of  color 
and  texture,  both,  in  the  hair. 

But  what  if  we  have  in  certain  hard  parts  a 
difference  without  its  corresponding  tangible 
modifying  cause  ?  What  if  parts  which  no 
muscle  acts  upon  vary  ?  In  such  a  case  we 
have  a  new  class  of  facts,  and  a  new  import 
given  to  it.  We  no  longer  draw  our  illustrations 
from  the  ropes  and  pulleys  of  machines.  Adap 
tation  there  may  be,  but  it  is  no  longer  an  adap 
tation  of  the  simple  straightforward  kind  that 
we  have  exhibited.  It  is  an  adaptation  on  the 
principle  which  determines  the  figure-head  of 
a  vessel,  not  one  on  the  principle  which  decides 


56  THE    IDEA. 

the  rigging.  Still  there  is  a  principle  on  both 
sides  ;  on  one,  however,  there  is  an  evident  con 
nection  of  cause  and  effect ;  on  the  other,  the 
notions  of  choice,  or  spontaneity  of  an.  idea^  is 
suggested. 

In  this  way,  the  consideration  of  a  tooth  dif 
fers  from  that  of  the  jaw  in  which  it  is  implant 
ed.  ISTo  muscles  act  directly  upon  it ;  and  all 
that  pressure  at  its  base  can  do  is  to  affect  the 
direction  of  its  growth.  The  form  of  its  crown  it 
leaves  untouched.  How — I  am  using  almost 
the  words  of  Prof.  Owen — can  we  conceive  the 
development  of  the  great  canine  of  the  chimpan 
zee  to  be  a  result  of  external  stimuli,  or  to  have 
been  influenced  by  muscular  actions,  when  it  is 
calcified  before  it  cuts  the  gum,  or  displaces  its 
deciduous  predecessor — a  structure  preordained, 
a  weapon  prepared  prior  to  the  development  of 
the  forces  by  which  it  is  to  be  wielded  ?* 

This  illustrates  the  difference  between  the 
parts  manifestly  obnoxious  to  the  influence  of 
external  conditions  and  the  parts  which  either 
do  not  vary  at  all,  or  vary  according  to  unascer- 
taind  laws. 

With  the  former  we  look  to  the  conditions  of 
sun,  air,  habits,  or  latitude ;  the  latter  we  inter 
pret,  as  we  best  can,  by  references  to  other 

*  On  the  Osteology  of  the  Great  Chimpanzee.     By  Professor 
Owen,  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions. 


PROBLEMS.  5Y 

species,  or  to  the  same  in  its  earlier  stages  of 
development. 

Thus,  the  so-called  supra-orbital  ridge,  or  the 
prominence  of  the  lower  portion  of  forehead 
over  the  nose  and  eyes,  is  more  marked  in  some 
individuals  than  in  others  ;  and  more  marked 
in  the  African  and  Australian  varieties  than  our 
own.  This  is  an  ethnological  fact. 

Again — and  this  is  an  anthropological  fact 
— it  is  but  moderately  developed  in  man  at  all : 
whilst  in  the  orang-utan  it  is  moderate  ;  and  in 
the  chimpanzee  enormously  and  characteristi 
cally  developed. 

Hence  it  is  one  of  the  nine  points  whereby 
the  Pithecus  Wurmbii  approaches  man  more 
closely  than  the  Trolodytes  Gorilla*  in  opposi 
tion  to  the  twenty-four  whereby  the  Troglodytes 
Gorilla  comes  nearer  to  us  than  the  Pithecus 
Wurmbii. 

Had  this  ridge  given  attachment  to  muscles, 
we  should  have  asked  what  work  these  muscles 
did,  and  how  far  it  varied  in  different  regions, 
instead  of  thinking  much  about  either  the  Pi- 
tJiecus  Wwnribii  or  the  troglodytes  Gorilla. 

However,  it  is  certain  problems  which  con 
stitute  the  higher  branches  of  ethnology ;  and  it 
is  to  the  investigation  of  these,  that  the  depart 
ment  of  ethnological  dynamics  is  subservient. 

*  Owen,  Philosophical  Transactions,  Feb.  22,  1848. 
4 


58  QUESTION    OF   SPECIES. 

Looking  backwards  we  find,  first  amongst  the 
foremost,  the  grand  questions  as  to — 

1.  The  unity  or  non-unity  of  the  species. 

2.  Its  antiquity. 

3.  Its  geographical  origin. 

The  unity  or  non-unity  of  the  human  species 
has  been  contemplated  under  a  great  multipli 
city  of  aspects ;  some  involving  the  fact  itself, 
some  the  meaning  of  the  term  species. 

1.  Certain  points  of  structure  are  constant. 
This  is  one  reason  for  making  man  the  only  spe 
cies  of  genus,  and  the  only  genus  of  his  order. 

2.  All  mixed  breeds  are  prolifiic.     This  is 
another. 

3.  The  evidence  of  language  indicates  a  com 
mon  origin ;  and  the  simplest  form  of  this  is  a 
single  pair.     This  is  a  third. 

4.  We  can  predicate  a  certain  number  of 
general    propositions   concerning   the   class   of 
beings  called  Human.     This  merely  separates 
them  from  all  other  classes.     It  does  not  deter 
mine  the  nature  of  the  class  itself  in  respect  to 
its  members.     It  may  fall  in  divisions  and  sub 
divisions. 

5.  The  species  may  be  one ;  but  the  number 
of  f/rst  pairs  may  be  numerous.     This  is  the 
doctrine  of  the  multiplicity  of  protoplasts* 

6.  The  species  may  have  had  no  protoplast 

*  From  protos*=jirst,  and  plastos^formed. 


QUESTION   OF   SPECIES.  59 

at  all ;  but  may  have  been  developed  out  of 
some  species  anterior  to  it,  and  lower  in  the 
scale  of  Nature,  this  previous  species  itself  hav 
ing  been  so  evolved.  In  this  case,  the  proto 
plast  is  thrown  indefinitely  backwards  ;  in  other 
words,  the  protoplast  of  one  species  is  the  pro 
toplast  of  many. 

7.  The  genus  Homo  may  fall  into  several 
species  ;  so  that  what  some  call  the  varieties  of 
a  single  species  are  really  different  species  of  a 
single  genus. 

8.  The   varieties  of  mankind  may   be  too 
great  to  be  included  in  even  a  genus.     There 
may  be  two  or  even  more  genera  to  an  order. 

9.  Many  of  the  present  varieties  may  repre 
sent  the  intermixtures  of  species  no  longer  ex 
tant  in  a  pure  state. 

10.  All  known  varieties  may  be  referable  to 
a  single  species  ;  but  there  may  be  new  species 
undescribed. 

11.  All  existing  varieties  may  be  referable 
to  a  single  species ;  but  certain  species  may  have 
ceased  to  exist. 

Such  are  the  chief  views  which  are  current 
amongst  learned  men  on  this  point ;  though  they 
have  not  been  exhibited  in  a  strictly  logical 
form,  inasmuch  as  differences  of  opinion  as  to 
the  meaning  of  the  term  species  have  been  given 
in  the  same  list  with  differences  of  opinion  as 
to  the  fact  of  our  unity  or  non-unity. 


60  MULTIPLICITY    OF 

These  differences  of  opinion  are  not  limited 
to  mere  matters  of  inference.  The  facts  on 
which  such  inferences  rest,  are  by  no  means 
unanimously  admitted.  Some  deny  the  con 
stancy  of  certain  points  of  structure,  and  more 
deny  the  permanent  fecundity  of  mixed  breeds. 
Again,  the  evidence  of  language  applies  only  to 
known  tongues  ;  whilst  the  fourth  view  is  based 
upon  a  logical  rather  than  a  zoological  view  of 
species. 

The  doctrine  of  a  multiplicity  of  protoplasts 
is  common.  Many  zoologists  hold  it,  and  they 
of  course  have  zoological  reasons  for  doing  so. 
Others  hold  it  upon  grounds  of  a  very  different 
description — grounds  which  rest  upon  the  as 
sumption  of  a  final  cause.  Man  is  a  social 
animal.  Let  the  import  of  this  be  ever  so  exag 
gerated.  The  term  is  a  correlative  one.  The 
wife  is  not  enough  to  the  husband ;  impair  re 
quires  its  pair  for  society's  sake.  Hence,  if 
man  be  not  formed  to  live  alone  now,  he  was 
not  formed  alone  at  first.  To  be  born  a  mem 
ber  of  society,  there  must  be  associates.  This 
is  the  teleological* — perhaps  it  may  be  called 
the  theological — reason  for  the  multiplicity  of 
protoplasts. 

Its  non-inductive  character  subtracts  some 
thing  from  its  value. 

*  From  the  Greek  telos—an  end. 


PROTOPLASTS.  61 

The  difficulty  of  drawing  a  line  as  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  original  society  subtracts  more. 
If  we  admit  a  second  pair,  why  not  grant  a  vil 
lage,  a  town,  a  city  and  its  corporation  ?  &c. 

Again,  this  is  either  a  primitive  civilization 
or  something  very  like  it.  Where  are  its  traces  ? 
Nevertheless,  if  we  grant  certain  assumptions 
in  respect  to  the  history  of  human  civilization, 
the  teleological  doctrine  of  the  multiplicity  of 
protoplasts  is  difficult  to  refute. 

And  so  is  the  zoological,  provided  that  we 
make  concessions  in  the  way  of  language.  Let 
certain  pairs  have  been  created  with  the  capa 
city,  but  not  with  the  gift  of  speech,  so  that 
they  shall  have  learned  their  language  of  others. 
Or  let  all,  at  first,  have  been  in  this  predicament, 
and  some  have  evolved  speech  earlier  than 
others — a  speech  eventually  extended  to  all. 
It  is  not  easy  to  answer  such  an  argument  as 
this. 

The  multiplicity  of  protoplasts  is  common 
ground  to  the  zoologist  and  the  human  natural 
ist,  although  the  phenomena  of  speech  and  so 
ciety  give  the  latter  the  larger  share.  The  same 
applies  to  the  doctrine  of  development.  The 
fundamental  affinity  which  connects  all  the  forms 
of  human  speech  is  valid  against  the  transcen- 
dentalist  only  when  he  assumes  that  each  orig 
inal  of  a  species  of  Man  appeared,  as  such,  with 


62  NONDESCRIPT   SPECIES. 

his  own  proper  language.  Let  him  allow  this 
to  have  been  originally  dumb,  and  with  only 
the  capacity  of  learning  speech  from  others,  and 
all  arguments  in  favor  of  the  unity  of  species, 
drawn  from  the  similarity  of  language,  fall  to 
the  ground. 

The  eighth  doctrine  is  little  more  than  an 
exaggeration  of  the  seventh.  The  seventh  will 
not  be  noticed  now,  simply  because  the  facts 
which  it  asserts  and  denies  pervade  the  whole 
study  of  ethnology,  and  appear  and  re-appear 
at  every  point  of  our  investigations. 

All  known  varieties  may  be  referable  to  a 
single  species  ;  but  there  may  be  other  species 
undescribed.  Wha-t  are  the  reasons  for  believ 
ing  this  ?  Premising  that  Dilbo  was  a  slave 
from  whom  Dr.  Beke  collected  certain  informa 
tion  respecting  the  countries  to  the  south-west 
of  Abyssinia,  I  subjoin  the  following  extract : 

"  The  countries  on  the  west  and  south-west 
of  Kaffa,  are,  according  to  Dilbo,  Damboro,  Bon- 
ga,  Koolloo,  Kootcha,  Soofa,  Tooifte,  and  Doko  ; 
on  the  east  and  south-east  are  the  plains  of 
Woratto,  Walamo,  and  Talda. 

"  The  country  of  Doko  is  a  month's  journey 
distant  from  Kaffa  ;  and  it  seems  that  only  those 
merchants  who  are  dealers  in  slaves  go  farther 
than  Kaffa.  The  most  common  route  passes 
Kaffa  in  a  south-westerly  direction,  leading  to 


THE   DOKOS.  63 

Damboro,  afterwards  to  Kootcha,  Koolloo,  and 
then  passing  the  river  Erow  to  ToofFte,  where 
they  begin  to  hunt  the  slaves  in  Doko,  of  which 
chase  I  shall  give  a  description  as  it  has  been 
stated  to  me,  and  the  reader  may  use  his  own 
judgment  respecting  it. 

"  Diibo  begins  with  stating  that  the  people 
of  Doko,  both  men  and  women,  are  said  to  be 
no  taller  than  boys  nine  or  ten  years  old.  They 
never  exceed  that  height,  even  in  the  most  ad 
vanced  age.  They  go  quite  naked ;  their  prin 
cipal  food  are  ants,  snakes,  mice,  and  other 
things  which  commonly  are  not  used  as  food. 
They  are  said  to  be  so  skillful  in  finding  out  the 
ants  and  snakes,  that  Dilbo  could  not  refrain 
from  praising  them  greatly  on  that  account. 
They  are  so  fond  of  this  food,  that  even  when 
they  have  become  acquainted  with  better  ali 
ment  in  Enarea  and  Kaffa,  they  are  neverthe 
less  frequently  punished  for  following  their  in 
clination  of  digging  in  search  of  ants  and  snakes, 
as  soon  as  they  are  out  of  sight  of  their  mas 
ters.  The  skins  of  snakes  are  worn  by  them 
about  their  necks  as  ornaments.  They  also  climb 
trees  with  great  skill  to  fetch  down  the  fruits ; 
and  in  doing  this  they  stretch  their  hands  down 
wards  and  their  legs  upwards.  They  live  in  ex 
tensive  forests  of  bamboo  and  other  woods,  which 
are  so  thick  that  the  slave-hunter  finds  it  very 


04  NONDESCRIPT   SPECIES. 

difficult  to  follow  them  in  these  retreats.  These 
hunters  sometimes  discover  a  great  number  of 
the  Dokos  sitting  on  the  trees,  and  then  they  use 
the  artifice  of  showing  them  shining  things,  by 
which  they  are  enticed  to  descend,  when  they 
are  captured  without  difficulty.  As  soon  as  a 
Doko  begins  to  cry  he  is  killed,  from  the  ap 
prehension  that  this,  as  a  sign  of  danger,  will 
cause  the  others  to  take  to  their  heels.  Even 
the  women  climb  on  the  trees,  where  in  a  few 
minutes  a  great  number  of  them  may  be  cap 
tured  and  sold  into  slavery. 

"  The  Dokos  live  mixed  together  ;  men  and 
women  unite  and  separate  as  they  please  ;  and 
this  Dilbo  considers  as  the  reason  why  the  tribe 
has  not  been  exterminated,  though  frequently  a 
single  slave-dealer  returns  home  with  a  thou 
sand  of  them  reduced  to  slavery.  The  mother 
suckles  the  child  only  as  long  as  she  is  unable 
to  find  ants  and  snakes  for  its  food :  she  aban 
dons  it  as  soon  as  it  can  get  its  food  by  itself. 
No  rank  or  order  exists  among  the  Dokos.  No 
body  orders,  nobody  obeys,  nobody  defends  the 
country,  nobody  cares  for  the  welfare  of  the  na 
tion.  They  make  no  attempts  to  secure  them 
selves  but  by  running  away.  They  are  as  quick 
as  monkeys  ;  and  they  are  very  sensible  of  the 
misery  prepared  for  them  by  the  slave-hunters, 
who  so  frequently  encircle  their  forests  and  drive 


THE   DOKOS.  65 

them  from  thence  into  the  open  plains  like 
beasts.  They  put  their  heads  on  the  ground, 
and  stretch  their  legs  upwards,  and  cry,  in  a 
pitiful  manner,  c  Yer  !  yer  !'  Thus  they  call  on 
the  Supreme  Being,  of  whom  they  have  some 
notion,  and  are  said  to  exclaim,  'If  you  do  ex 
ist,  why  do  you  suffer  us  to  die,  who  do  not  ask 
for  food  or  clothes,  and  who  live  on  snakes,  ants, 
and  mice  ?'  Dilbo  stated  that  it  was  no  rare 
thing  to  find  five  or  six  Dokos  in  such  a  posi 
tion  and  state  of  mind.  Sometimes  these  peo 
ple  quarrel  among  themselves,  when  they  eat 
the  fruit  of  the  trees;  then  the  stronger  one 
throws  the  weaker  to  the  ground,  and  the  latter 
is  thus  frequently  killed  in  a  miserable  way. 

"  In  their  country  it  rains  incessantly  ;  at 
least  from  May  to  January,  and  even  later  the 
rain  does  not  cease  entirely.  The  climate  is  not 
cold,  but  very  wet.  The  traveller,  in  going  from 
Kaffa  to  Doko,  must  pass  over  a  high  country, 
and  cross  several  rivers,  which  fall  into  the 
Gochob. 

"  The  language  of  the  Dokos  is  a  kind  of 
murmuring,  which  is  understood  by  no  one  but 
themselves  and  their  hunters.  The  Dokos  evince 
much  sense  and  skill  in  managing  the  affairs  of 
their  masters,  to  whom  they  are  soon  much  at 
tached;  and  they  render  themselves  valuable 
to  such  a  degree,  that  no  native  of  Kaffa  ever 
4* 


66  NONDESCRIPT    SPECIES. 

sells  one  of  them  to  be  sent  out  of  the  country. 
As  Captain  Clapperton  says  of  the  slaves  of 
Nyffie  : — '  The  very  slaves  of  this  people  are  in 
great  request,  and  when  once  obtained  are  never 
again  sold  out  of  the  country.'  The  inhabitants 
of  Enarea  and  Kaffa  sell  only  those  slaves  which 
they  have  taken  in  their  border-wars  with  the 
tribes  living  near  them,  but  never  a  Doko.  The 
Doko  is  also  averse  to  being  sold ;  he  prefers 
death  to  separating  from  his  master,  to  whom  he 
has  attached  himself. 

"The  access  to  the  country  of  Doko  is  very 
difficult,  as  the  inhabitants  of  Damboro,  Koolloo, 
and  Tooffte  are  enemies  to  the  traders  from 
Kaffa,  though  these  tribes  are  dependent  on 
Kaffa,  and  pay  tribute  to  its  sovereigns ;  for 
these  tribes  are  intent  on  preserving  for  them 
selves  alone  the  exclusive  privilege  of  hunting 
the  Dokos,  and  of  trading  with  the  slaves  thus 
obtained. 

"  Dilbo  did  not  know  whether  the  tribes  re 
siding  south  and  west  of  the  Dokos  persecute 
this  unhappy  nation  in  the  same  cruel  way. 

u  This  is  Dilbo's  account  of  the  Dokos,  a 
nation  of  pigmies,  who  are  found  in  so  de 
graded  a  condition  of  human  nature  that  it  is 
difficult  to  give  implicit  credit  to  his  account. 
The  notion  of  a  nation  of  pigmies  in  the  interior 
of  Africa  is  very  ancient,  as  Herodotus  speaks 
of  them  in  II.  32." 


EXTINCT    SPECIES.  67 

"Now  those  who  believe  in  the  Dokos  at  all, 
may  fairly  believe  them  to  constitute  a  new 
species. 

Other  imperfectly  known  populations  may 
be  put  forward  in  a  similar  point  of  view. 

All  existing  varieties  may  be  referable  to  a 
single  species ;  but  certain  species  may  have 
ceased  to  exist.  There  is  a  considerable  amount 
of  belief  in  this  respect.  We  see,  in  certain 
countries,  which  are  at  present  barbarous  ves 
tiges  of  a  prior  civilization,  works,  like  those  of 
Mexico  and  Peru,  for  instance,  which  the  exist 
ing  inhabitants  confess  to  be  beyond  their  pow 
ers.  Be  it  so.  Is  the  assumption  of  a  different 
species  with  architectural  propensities  more 
highly  developed,  legitimate  ?  The  reader  will 
answer  this  question  in  his  own  way.  I  can 
only  say  that  such  assumptions  have  been  made. 

Again :  ancient  tombs  exhibit  skeletons 
which  differ  from  the  living  individuals  of  the 
country.  Is  a  similar  assumption  here  justifi 
able  ?  It  has  been  made. 

The  most  remarkable  phenomena  of  the  kind 
in  question  are  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  the 
Peruvians. 

The  parts  about  the  Lake  Titicaca  form  the 
present  country  of  the  Aymaras,  whose  heads 
are  much  like  those  of  the  other  Americans, 
whose  taste  for  architecture  is  but  slight,  and 


68  ANTIQUITY. 

whose  knowledge  of  having  descended  from  a 
people  more  architectural  than  themselves  is 
none. 

Nevertheless,  there  are  vast  ruins  in  their 
district ;  whilst  the  heads  of  those  whose  re 
mains  are  therein  preserved  have  skulls  with 
the  sutures  obliterated,  and  with  remarkable 
frontal,  lateral,  and  occipital  depressions. 

Does  this  denote  an  extinct  species  ?  Indi 
vidually,  I  think  it  does  not ;  because,  individu 
ally,  with  many  others,  I  know  that  certain 
habits  decline,  and  I  also  believe  that  the  flat- 
teiiings  of  the  head  are  artificial.  Neverthe 
less,  if  I,  ever  so  little,  exaggerated  the  perma 
nency  of  habits,  or  if  I  identified  a  habit  with 
an  instinct,  or  if  I  considered  the  skulls  natural, 
the  chances  are  that  I  should  recognise  the  re 
mains  of  ancient  stock — possibly  an  ancient 
species — without  congeners  and  without  descend 
ants. 

The  antiquity  of  the  human  species. — Our 
views  on  this  point  depend  upon  our  views  as 
to  its  unity  or  non-unity  ;  so  much  so,  that  un 
less  we  assume  either  one  or  the  other,  the  ques 
tion  of  antiquity  is  impracticable.  And  it  must 
also  be  added  that,  unless  the  inquiry  is  to  be 
excessively  complicated,  the  unity-doctrine  must 
take  the  form  of  descent  from  a  single  pair. 

Assuming  this,  we  take  the  most  extreme 


GEOGRAPHICAL    ORIGIN    OF    SPECIES.  69 

specimens  of  difference,  whether  it  be  in  the 
way  of  physical  conformation  or  mental  phseno- 
mena — of  these  last,  language  being  the  most 
convenient.  After  this,  we  ask  the  time  neces 
sary  for  bringing  about  the  changes  effected; 
the  answer  to  this  resting  upon  the  induction 
supplied  within  the  historical  period ;  an  an 
swer  requiring  the  application  of  wThat  has  al 
ready  been  called  Ethnological  Dynamics. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  may  assume  a  cer 
tain  amount  of  original  difference,  and  investi 
gate  the  time  requisite  for  effecting  the  existing 
amount  of  similarity. 

The  first  of  these  methods  requires  a  long, 
the  second  a  short  period ;  indeed,  descent  from 
a  single  pair  implies  a  geological  rather  than  a 
historical  date. 

Furthermore :  that  uniformity  in  the  aver 
age  rate  of  change  which  the  geologist  requires, 
ethnology  requires  also. 

The  geographical  origin  of  Man. — Suppos 
ing  all  the  varieties  of  Man  to  have  originated 
from  a  single  protoplast  pair,  in  what  part  of  the 
world  was  that  single  protoplast  pair  placed  ? 
Or  supposing  such  protoplast  pairs  to  have  been 
numerous,  what  were  the  respective  original  lo 
cations  of  each  ?  I  ask  these  questions  without 
either  giving  any  answer  to  them,  or  exhibiting 
any  method  for  discovering  one.  Of  the  three 


70  RACE. 

great  problems  it  is  the  one  which  has  received 
least  consideration,  and  the  one  concerning 
which  there  is  the  smallest  amount  of  decided 
opinion.  The  conventional,  provisional,  or  hypo 
thetical  cradle  of  the  human  species  is,  of  course, 
the  most  central  point  of  the  inhabited  world  ; 
inasmuch  as  this  gives  us  the  greatest  amount  of 
distribution  with  the  least  amount  of  migration  ; 
but,  of  course,  such  a  centre  is  wholly  unhis- 
torical. 

Race. — What  is  the  meaning  of  this  word  ? 

Does  it  mean  variety  f  If  so,  why  not  say 
variety  at  once  \ 

Does  it  mean  species?  Kit  do,  one  of  the 
two  phrases  is  superfluous. 

In  the  simple  truth  it  means  either  or  neith 
er,  as  the  case  may  be ;  and  is  convenient  of 
superfluous  according  to  the  views  of  the  writer 
who  uses  it. 

If  he  believe  that  groups  and  classes  like  the 
JSTegro,  the  Hottentot,  the  American,  the  Austra 
lian,  or  the  Mongolian,  differ  from  each  other  as 
the  dog  differs  from  the  fox,  he  talks  of  species. 
He  has  made  up  his  mind. 

But,  perhaps,  he  does  no  such  thing.  His 
mind  is  made  up  the  other  way.  Members  of 
such  classes  may  be  to  Europeans,  and  to  each 
other,  just  what  the  cur  is  to  the  pug,  the  point 
er  to  the  beagle,  &c.  They  may  be  varieties. 


SIZE   OF   CRANIA..  71 

He  uses,  then,  the  terms  according! y ;  but  in 
order  to  do  so,  he  must  have  made  up  his  mind ; 
and  certain  classes  must  represent  either  one  or 
the  other. 

But  what  if  he  have  not  done  this  ?  If,  in 
stead  of  teaching  undoubted  facts,  he  is  merely 
investigating  doubtful  ones?  In  this  case  the 
term  race  is  convenient.  It  is  convenient  for 
him  during  his  pursuit  of  an  opinion,  and  during 
the  consequent  suspension  of  his  opinion. 

Hace,  then,  is  the  term  denoting  a  species  or 
variety,  as  the  case  may  be — pendente  lite.  It 
is  a  term  which,  if  it  conceals  our  ignorance,  pro 
claims  our  openness  to  conviction. 

Of  the  prospective  views  of  humanity,  one 
has  been  considered.  But  there  are  others  of  at 
least  equal  importance.  Two,  out  of  many,  may 
serve  as  samples. 

1.  The  first  is  suggested  by  the  following 
Table,  taken  from  a  fuller  one  in  Mr.  D.  Wil 
son's  valuable  Archaeology  and  Prehistoric 
Annals  of  Scotland.  It  shows  the  relative  pro 
portions  of  a  series  of  skulls  of  very  great,  with 
those  of  a  series  of  modern  antiquity. 

The  study  of  this — and  it  requires  to  be 
studied  carefully — gives  grounds  for  believing 
that  the  capacity  of  a  skull  may  increase  as  the 
social  condition  improves  ;  from  which  it  follows 
that  the  physical  organization  of  the  less-favored 


72  CASES. 

stocks  may  develop  itself  progressively, — and, 
paripassu,  the  mental  power  that  coincides  with 
it.  This  illustrates  the  nature  of  a  certain  eth 
nological  question.  But  what  if  the  two  classes 
of  sculls  belong  to  different  stocks  ;  so  that  the 
owners  of  one  were  not  the  progenitors  of  the 
proprietors  of  the  other  ?  Such  a  view  (and  it 
is  not  unreasonable),  illustrates  the  extent  to 
which  it  is  complicated. 


MR.    WILSON'S    TABLE. 


r-(0 

Relative        ^  ^  ^  2  co  -H  ^ 

d  *— '  O  00  O^  CO  CO   .  C^  *^f  Cl  CO  CO  C^l  d  d   I  CO  *i..j 
CO  CO  CO  CM  C-1  CO  CO    COCOCOCOCOCOCOCO    COCO 

Horizontal      •<3<:ooi>pooc~cot-coTfH'— <>— iCMO'— it~ 
periphery,      boidicbosbb^b^ 

^^^^^cqtM^c^c^tMcqr-icqoi 

Do  frm  oc-  ^  ,_,  o 

cipital  pro 
tuberance 

to  root  of 
lose. 

Occipito- 

frontal 

arch. 

Ditto  from  H«  o  H«  o  <^-  HCI  o 

upper  root  oor—ioO'— 'GOOf-^coo^cocs     -coco 
ofzygoma- 
ic  process. 

In  term  as- 

toid  lines,      ^r1     :  T>     I^T     iopp^-THO^co     :     .t-o     I 

co 

intermas- 

toid  arch  .^ 

rom  upper      xooo^c.ooiocoasr-ico^coO'-HTt*     .oocoo 
root  of  zy- 
gomatic 
process. 

Intermas-       ^->  c^     .ooc^coco     .001000^00050 
,oid  arch.        coco     Icb^fTfTf1     iT^TfTfTfT^Tf^f^o 

Vertical        C 
diameter. 

Frontal 
diameter. 

Parietal 
diameter. 

Longitudi 
nal  diame- 
:er. 


74  CASES — THEORY. 

2.  The  second,  like  the  first,  shall  be  ex 
plained  by  extracts : 


a.  Mrs. ,  a  neighbor  of  Mr.  M'Combie,  was  twice  mar 
ried,  and  had  issue  by  both  husbands.     The  children  of  the  first 
marriage  were  five  in   number  ;  by   the   second,   three.     One 
of  these  three,  a  daughter,  bears  an  unmistakable  resemblance 
to  her  mother's  first  husband.     "What  makes  the  likeness  the 
more  discernible  is,  that  there  was  the  most  marked  difference, 
in   their   features  and    general   appearance,    between   the  two 
husbands. 

****** 

b.  A  young  woman,  residing  in    Edinburgh,  and  born  of 
white  (Scottish)  parents,  but  whose  mother  some  time  previous 
to  her  marriage  had  a  natural  (Mulatto)  child,  by  a  negro-ser 
vant,  in  Edinburgh,  exhibits  distinct  traces  of  the  negro.     Dr. 
Simpson,  whose  patient  the  young  woman  at  one  lime  was,  has 
had  no  recent  opportunities  of  satisfying  himself  as  to  the  pre 
cise  extent  to  which  the  negro  character  prevails  in  her  fea 
tures  ;  but  he  recollects  being  struck  with  the  resemblance,  and 
noticed  particularly  that  the  hair  had  the  qualities  characteristic 

f  the  negro. 

****** 

c.  Mrs. ,  apparently  perfectly  free  from  scrofula,  married 

a  man  who  died  of  phthisis ;  she  had  one  child  by  him,  which 
also  died  of  phthisis.     She  next  married  a  person  who  was  to  all 
appearance  equally  healthy  as  herself,  and  had  two  children  by 
him,  one  of  which  died  of  phthisis,  the  other  of  tubercular  me- 
senteric  disease — having,  at  the  same  time,  scrofulous  ulceratiou 
of  the  under  extremity. 

There  are  the  elements  of  a  theory  here ; 
especially  if  they  be  taken  along  with  certain 
phenomena,  well-known  to  the  breeders  of  race- 


METHODS.  75 

horses — the  theory  being,  that  the  mixture  of 
the  distinctive  characters  of  different  divisions 
of  mankind  may  be  greater  than  the  intermix 
ture  itself.  I  give  no  opinion  on  the  data.  I 
merely  illustrate  an  ethnological  question — one 
out  of  many. 


76  EXPERIMENT    AND    OBSERVATION. 


CHAPTEK    III. 

Methods — the  science  one  of  observation  and  deduction  rather 
than  experiment — classification — on  rnineralogical,  on  zoolo 
gical  principles — the  first  for  Anthropology,  the  second  for 
Ethnology — value  of  Language  as  a  test — instances  of  its 
loss — of  its  retention — when  it  proves  original  relation,  when 
intercourse — the  grammatical  and  glossarial  tests — classifica 
tions  must  be  real — the  distribution  of  Man — size  of  area — 
ethnological  contrasts  in  close  geographical  contact — discon 
tinuity  and  isolation  of  areas — oceanic  migrations. 

IN  the  Natural  History  of  Man  we  must  keep 
almost  exclusively  to  the  methods  of  deduction 
and  observation ;  and  in  observation  we  are  li 
mited  to  one  sort  only,  i.  e.,  that  simple  and 
spontaneous  kind  where  the  object  can  be  found 
if  sougtht  for,  but  cannot  be  artificially  produced. 
In  other  words,  there  is  no  great  room  for  expe 
riment.  The  corpus  is  not  vile  enough  for  the 
purpose.  Besides  which,  "  even  if  we  suppose 
unlimited  power  of  varying  the  experiment, 
(which  is  abstractedly  possible,)  though  no  one 
but  an  oriental  despot  either  has  the  power,  or 
if  he  had,  would  be  disposed  to  exercise  it,  a 
still  more  essential  condition  is  wanting — the 
power  of  performing  any  of  the  experiments 
with  scientific  accuracy."*  Experiment  is  near 

*  Mill  (vol.  ii.),  speaking  of  the  allied  subject  of  the  Moral 
History  of  Man. 


EXPERIMENT    AND    OBSERVATION.  77 

ly  as  much  out  of  place  in  Ethnology  and  An 
thropology  as  it  is  in  Astronomy. 

Psammetichus,  to  be  sure,  according  to  He 
rodotus,  did  as  follows.  He  took  children  of  a 
poor  man,  put  them  in  the  charge  of  a  shepherd 
who  was  forbidden  to  speak  in  their  presence, 
suckled  them  in  a  lone  hut  through  a  she-goat, 
waited  for  the  age  at  which  boys  begin  to  talk, 
and  then  took  down  the  first  word  they  uttered. 
This  was  bekos,  which  when  it  was  shown  to 
mean  in  the  Phrygian  language  bread,  the  Egyp 
tians  yielded  the  palm  of  antiquity  to  that 
rival. 

ISTow  this  was  an  ethnological  experiment ; 
but  then  Psammetichus  was  an  oriental  despot, 
and  the  instance  itself  is,  probably,  the  only  one 
of  its  class — the  only  one,  or  nearly  so — the  only 
one  which  is  a  true  experiment ;  since  in  order 
to  be  such,  there  must  be  a  definite  and  specific 
end  or  object  in  view. 

We  know  the  tradition  about  Newton  and 
the  apple.  This,  if  true,  was  no  experiment, 
but  an  observation.  To  have  been  the  former, 
the  tree  should  have  been  shaken  for  the  pur 
pose  of  seeing  the  fruit  descend.  There  would 
then  have  been  an  end  and  aim — malice  pre 
pense,  so  to  say. 

Hence  the  phenomena  of  the  African  slave- 
trade,  of  English  emigration,  and  of  other  simi- 


78  PRINCIPLE   OF   CLASSIFICATION. 

lar  elements  for  observation  are  no  experiments ; 
since  it  has  not  been  Science  that  either  the  sla 
ver  or  the  settler  ever  thought  about.  Sugar 
or  cotton,  land  or  money,  was  what  ran  in  their 
heads. 

The  revolting  operation  by  which  the  jealous 
Oriental  labors  to  secure  the  integrity  of  his 
harem,  is  in  its  end  a  scientific  fact.  It  tells 
how  much  the  whole  system  sympathises  with 
the  mutilation  of  one  of  its  parts.  But  it  is 
nothing  for  Science  to  either  applaud  or  imitate. 
It  is  repeated  by  the  sensual  Italian  for  the  sake 
of  ensuring  fine  voices  in  the  music-market ;  and 
Science  is  disgusted  at  its  repetition.  Even  if 
done  in  her  own  name,  and  for  her  own  objects, 
it  would  still  be  but  an  inhuman  and  intolerable 
iorm  of  zootomy. 

Still  the  trade  in  Africans,  and  the  emigra 
tion  of  Englishmen  are  said  to  partake  of  the 
nature  of  a  scientific  experiment,  even  without 
being  one.  They  are  said  to  serve  as  such.  So 
they  do  ;  yet  not  in  the  way  in  which  they 
are  often  interpreted.  A  European  regiment  is 
decimated  by  being  placed  on  the  Gambia,  or 
in  Sierra  Leone.  The  American  Anglo-Saxon  is 
said  to  have  lost  the  freshness  of  the  European 
— to  have  become  brown  in  color,  and  wiry  in 
muscle.  Perhaps  he  has.  Yet  what  does  this 
prove  ?  Merely  the  effect  of  sudden  changes  ; 


PRINCIPLE    OF    CLASSIFICATION.  79 

the  results  of  distant  transplantation ;  the  im 
perfect  character  of  those  forms  of  acclimatiza 
tion  which  are  not  gradual.  It  was  not  in  this 
way  that  the  world  was  originally  peopled.  New 
climates  were  approached  by  degrees,  step  by 
step,  by  enlargement  and  extension  of  the  cir 
cumference  of  a  previously  acclimated  family. 
Hence  the  experience  of  the  kind  in  question, 
valuable  as  it  is  in  the  way  of  Medical  Police, 
is  comparatively  worthless  in  a  theory  as  to 
the  Migrations  of  Mankind.  Take  a  man  from 
Caucasus  to  the  Gold  Coast,  and  he  either  dies  or 
takes  a  fever  But  would  he  do  so  if  his  previous 
sojourn  had  been  on  the  Gambia,  his  grandfa 
ther's  on  the  Senegal,  his  ancestors  in  the  tenth  de 
gree  on  the  Nile,  and  that  ancestor's  ancestor's  on 
the  Jordan — thus  going  back  till  we  reached  the 
first  remote  patriarch  of  the  migration  on  the 
Phasis  ?  This  is  an  experiment  which  no  single 
generation  can  either  make  or  observe  ;  yet  less 
than  this  is  no  experiment  at  all,  no  imitation 
of  that  particular  operation  of  Nature  which  we 
are  so  curious  to  investigate. 

What  follows  applies  to  Ethnology.  The 
first  result  we  get  from  our  observations  is  a 
classification,  i.  e.,  groups  of  individuals,  fami 
lies,  tribes,  nations,  sub-varieties,  varieties,  and 
(according  to  some),  of  species  connected  by 
some  common  link,  and  united  on  some  com- 


80  PRINCIPLE   OF   CLASSIFICATION. 

mon  principle.  There  is  no  want  of  groups  of 
this  kind  ;  and  many  of  them  are  so  natural,  as 
to  be  unsusceptible  of  improvement.  Yet  the 
nomenclature  for  their  different  divisions  is  unde 
termined,  the  values  of  many  of  them  uncertain, 
and  above  all,  the  principle  upon  which  they  are 
formed  is  by  no  means  uniform.  Whilst  some 
investigators  classify  mankind  on  Zoological, 
others  do  so  on  what  may  be  called  Mineralogi- 
cal,  principles.  This  difference  will  be  some 
what  fully  illustrated. 

In  Africa,  as  is  well  known,  a  great  portion  of 
the  population  is  black-skinned  ;  and  with  this 
black  skin  other  physical  characteristics  are 
generally  found  in  conjunction.  Thus  the  hair 
is  either  crisp  or  woolly,  the  nose  depressed,  and 
the  lips  thick.  As  we  approach  Asia  these 
criteria  decrease  ;  the  Arab  being  fairer,  better- 
featured  and  straighter-haired  than  the  Nubian, 
and  the  Persian  more  so  than  the  Arab.  In 
Hindostan,  however,  the  color  deepens  ;  and  by 
looking  amongst  the  most  moist  and  alluvial 
parts  of  the  southern  peninsula,  we  find  skins  as 
dark  as  those  of  Africa,  and  hair  crisp  rather  than 
straight.  Besides  this,  the  fine  oval  contour  and 
regular  features  of  the  high-cast  Hindus  of  the 
North  become  scarce,  whilst  the  lips  get  thick, 
the  skin  harsh,  and  the  features  coarse. 

Further  on — we  come  to  the  great  Peninsula 


PRINCIPLE    OF    CLASSIFICATION.  81 

which  contains  the  kingdoms  of  Ava  and  Siam 
— the  Indo-Chinese  or  Transgangetic  Peninsula. 
In  many  parts  of  this  the  population  blackens 
again ;  and  in  the  long  narrow  peninsula  of  Ma 
lacca,  a  large  proportion  of  the  older  population 
has  been  described  as  lilaclcs.  In  the  islands 
we  find  them  again  ;  so  much  so  that  the  Span 
ish  authorities  call  them  Negritos,  or  Little  Ne 
groes.  In  New  Guinea  all  is  black ;  and  in  Aus 
tralia  and  Yan  Diemen's  Land  it  is  blacker 
still.  In  Australia  the  hair  is  generally  straight ; 
but  in  the  first  and  last-named  countries  it  is 
frizzy,  crisped,  or  curling.  This  connects  them 
with  the  Negroes  of  Africa  ;  and  their  color  does 
so  still  more.  At  any  rate,  we  talk  of  the  Aus 
tralian  Blacks )  just  as  the  Spaniards  do  of  the 
Philippine  Negritos.  Moral  characteristics 
connect  the  Australian  and  the  Negro,  much  in 
the  same  manner  as  the  physical  ones.  Both, 
as  compared  with  the  European,  are  either  real, 
ly  deficient  in  intellectual  capacity,  or  (at  least) 
have  played  an  unimportant  part  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  Thus,  several  populations  have 
come  under  the  class  of  Blacks.  Is  this  classi 
fication  natural  ? 

It  shall  be  illustrated  further.     On  the  ex 
tremities  of  each  of  the  quarters  of  the  world, 
we  find  populations  that  in  many  respects  re 
semble  each  other.     In  Northern  Asia   and  Eu- 
5 


82  PRINCIPLE    OF   CLASSIFICATION. 

rope,  the  Eskimo,  Samoeid,  and  Laplander,  tol 
erant  of  the  cold  of  the  Arctic  Circle,  are  all 
characterized  by  a  flatness  of  face,  a  lowness  of 
stature,  and  a  breadth  of  head.  In  some  cases 
the  contrast  between  them  and  their  nearest 
neighbors  to  the  south,  in  these  respects,  is  re 
markable.  The  Norwegian,  who  comes  in  con 
tact  with  the  Lap,  is  strong  and  well-made ;  so 
are  many  of  the  Hed  Indians  who  front  the 
Eskimo. 

At  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  something  of 
the  same  sort  appears.  The  Hottentot  of  the 
southern  extremity  of  Africa  is  undersized, 
small-limbed,  and  broad-faced  ;  so  much  so,  that 
most  writers,  in  describing  him,  have  said  that, 
in  his  confirmation,  the  Mongolian  type — to 
which  the  Eskimo  belongs — Asiatic  itself — re 
appears  in  Africa.  And  then  his  neighbor,  the 
K  afire,  differs  from  him  as  the  Finlander  does 
from  the  Lap. 

Mutatis  mutandis ',  all  this  re-appears  at 
Cape  Horn,  where  the  Patagonian  changes 
suddenly  to  the  Fuegian. 

But  we  in  Europe  are  favored  ;  our  limbs  are 
well-formed  and  our  skin  fair.  Be  it  so:  yet 
there  are  writers  who,  seeing  the  extent  to 
which  the  Islanders  of  the  Pacific  are  favored 
also,  and  noting  the  degree  to  which  European 
points  of  color,  size,  and  capacity  for  improve- 


PRINCIPLE   OF   CLASSIFICATION.  83 

merit,  real  or  supposed,  re-appear  at  the  Anti 
podes,  have  thrown  the  Polynesian  and  the 
Englishman  in  one  and  the  same  class. 

And  so,  perhaps,  he  is,  if  we  are  to  judge  by 
certain  characteristics ;  if  agreement  in  certain 
matters,  wherein  the  intermediate  populations 
differ,  form  the  grounds  upon  which  we  make 
our  groups,  the  Fuegians,  Eskimo,  and  Hotten 
tots  form  one  class,  and  the  Negroes  and  Aus 
tralians  another.  But  are  these  classes  natural? 
That  depends  upon  the  questions  to  which  the 
classification  is  subservient.  If  we  wish  to 
know  how  far  moisture  and  coolness  freshen  the 
complexion ;  how  far  moisture  and  heat  darken 
it;  how  far  mountain  altitudes  affect  the  human 
frame ;  in  other  words,  how  far  common  exter 
nal  conditions  develop  common  habits  and 
common  points  of  structure,  nothing  can  be  bet 
ter  than  the  groups  in  question. 

But  alter  the  problem :  let  us  wish  to  know 
how  certain  areas  were  peopled  ;  what  popula 
tion  gave  origin  to  some  other ;  how  the  Ameri 
cans  reached  America ;  whence  the  Britons 
came  into  England,  or  any  questions  connected 
with  the  migrations,  affiliations,  and  origin  of 
the  varieties  of  our  species,  and  groups  of  this 
kind  are  valueless.  They  tell  us  something — • 
but  not  what  we  want  to  know ;  inasmuch  as 
our  question  now  concerns  blood,  descent,  pedi- 


84:  PRINCIPLE    OF   CLASSIFICATION. 

gree,  relationship.  To  tell  an  inquirer  who 
wishes  to  deduce  one  population  from  another 
that  certain  distant  tribes  agree  with  the  one 
under  discussion  in  certain  points  of  resem 
blance,  is  as  irrelevant  as  to  tell  a  lawyer  in 
search  of  the  next  of  kin  to  a  client  deceased, 
that  though  you  know  of  no  relations,  you  can 
find  a  man  who  is  the  very  picture  of  him  in 
person — a  fact  good  enough  in  itself,  but  not  to 
the  purpose;  except  (of  course)  so  far  as  the 
likeness  itself  suggests  a  relationship — which  it 
may  or  may  not  do. 

Classes  formed  irrespective  of  descent  are 
classes  on  the  Mineralogical,  whilst  classes 
formed  with  a  view  to  the  same  are  classes  on 
the  Zoological,  principle.  Which  is  wanted  in 
the  Natural  History  of  Man  ?  The  first  for 
Anthropology  ;  the  second  for  Ethnology. 

But  why  the  antagonism  ?  Perhaps  the  two 
methods  may  coincide.  The  possibility  of  this 
has  been  foreshadowed.  The  family  likeness 
may,  perhaps,  prove  a  family  connection.  True  : 
at  the  same  time  each  case  must  be  tested  on  its 
own  grounds.  Hence,  whether  the  African  is 
to  be  grouped  with  the  Australian,  or  wrhether 
the  two  classes  are  to  be  as  far  asunder  in  Eth 
nology  as  in  Geography,  depends  upon  the  re 
sults  of  the  special  investigation  of  that  particu 
lar  connection — real  or  supposed.  It  is  sufficient 


PRINCIPLE    OF   CLASSIFICATION.  85 

to  say  that  none  of  the  instances  quoted  exhibit 
any  such  relationship  ;  though  many  a  theory — 
as  erroneous  as  bold — has  been  started  to  ac 
count  for  it. 

It  is  for  Ethnology,  then,  that  classification 
is  most  wanted — more  than  for  Anthropology  ; 
even  as  it  is  for  Zoology  that  we  require  orders 
and  genera  rather  than  for  Physiology.  This  is 
'  based  upon  certain  distinctive  characters ;  some 
of  which  are  of  a  physical,  others  of  a  moral 
sort.  Each  falls  into  divisions.  There  are 
moral  and  intellectual  phenomena  which  prove 
nothing  in  the  way  of  relationship,  simply  be 
cause  they  are  the  effects  of  a  common  grade  of 
civilization al  development.  "What  wrould  be 
easier  than  to  group  all  the  hunting,  all  the 
piscatory,  or  all  the  pastoral  tribes  together;  and 
to  exclude  from  these  all  who  built  cities,  milked 
cows,  sowed  corn,  or  ploughed  land  ?  Common 
conditions  determine  common  habits. 

Again,  much  that  seems  at  first  glance  de 
finite,  specific,  and  characteristic,  loses  its  value 
as  a  test  of  ethnological  affinity,  when  we  ex 
amine  the  families  in  which  it  occurs.  In  dis 
tant  countries,  and  in  tribes  far  separated,  su 
perstition  takes  a  common  form,  and  creeds  that 
arise  independently  of  each  other  look  as  if 
they  were  deduced  from  a  common  origin.  All 
this  makes  the  facts  in  what  may  be  called  the 


86  VALUE   OF   LANGUAGE  : 

Natural  History  of  the  Arts  or  of  Religion  easy 
to  collect,  but  difficult  to  appreciate  ;  in  many 
cases,  indeed,  we  are  taken  up  into  the  rare  and 
elevated  atmosphere  of  metaphysics.  What  if 
different  modes  of  architecture,  or  sculpture,  or 
varieties  in  the  practice  of  such  useful  arts  as 
weaving  and  ship-building,  be  attributed  to  the 
same  principle  that  makes  a  sparrow's  nest  dif 
ferent  from  a  hawk's,  or  a  honey-bee's  from  a' 
hornet's  ?  What  if  there  be  different  instincts 
in  human  art,  as  there  is  in  the  nidification  ot 
birds  ?  Whatever  may  be  the  fact,  it  is  clear 
that  such  a  doctrine  must  modify  the  interpreta 
tion  of  it.  The  clue  to  these  complications — • 
and  they  form  a  Gordian  knot  which  must  be 
unravelled,  and  not  cut — lies  in  the  cautious  in 
duction  from  what  we  know  to  what  we  do  not; 
from  the  undoubted  differences  admitted  to 
exist  within  undoubtedly  related  populations,  to 
the  greater  ones  which  distinguish  more  distant 
ly  connected  groups. 

This  has  been  sufficient  to  indicate  the  ex 
istence  of  certain  moral  characters  wrhich  are 
really  no  characters  at  all — at  least  in  the  way 
of  proving  descent  or  affiliation ;  and  that 
physical  ones  of  the  same  kind  are  equally  nu 
merous  may  be  inferred  from  what  has  already 
been  wrritten. 

It  is  these  elements  of  uncertainty  so  profuse- 


ITS    PERMANENCE   AND    ITS    EXTINCTION.        87 

ly  mixed  up  with  almost  all  the  other  classes  of 
ethnological  facts,  that  give  such  a  high  value, 
as  an  instrument  of  investigation,  to  Language  j 
inasmuch  as,  although  two  different  families  of 
mankind  may  agree  in  having  skins  of  the  same 
color,  or  hair  of  the  same  texture,  without, 
thereby,  being  connected  in  the  way  of  relation 
ship,  it  is  hard  to  conceive  how  they  could  agree 
in  calling  the  same  objects  by  the  same 
name,  without  a  community  of  origin,  or  else 
either  direct  or  indirect  intercourse.  Affiliation 
or  intercourse — one  of  the  two — this  communi 
ty  of  language  exhibits.  One  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  other  it  does  not  exhibit.  If  it  did  so,  it 
would  be  of  greater  value  than  it  is.  Still  it 
indicates  one  of  the  two ;  and  either  fact  is 
worth  looking  for. 

The  value  of  language  has  been  overrated ; 
chiefly,  of  course,  by  the  philologists.  And  it 
has  been  undervalued.  The  anatomists  and 
archaeologists,  and,  above  all,  the  zoologists, 
have  done  this.  The  historian,  too,  has  not 
known  exactly  how  to  appreciate  it,  when  its 
phenomena  come  in  collision  with  the  direct 
testimony  of  authorities  ;  the  chief  instrument 
in  his  own  line  of  criticism. 

It  is  overrated  when  we  make  the  affinities 
of  speech  between  two  populations  absolute  evi 
dence  of  connection  in  the  way  of  relationship. 


88  VALUE   OF    LANGUAGE. 

It  is  overrated  when  we  talk  of  tongues  being 
immutable,  and  of  languages  never  dying.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  unduly  disparaged  when  an 
inch  or  two  of  difference  in  stature,  a  difference 
in  the  taste  in  the  fine  arts,  a  modification  in 
the  religious  belief,  or  a  disproportion  in  the  in 
fluence  upon  the  affairs  of  the  world,  is  set  up 
as  a  mark  of  distinction  between  two  tribes 
speaking  one  and  the  same  tongue,  and  alike  in 
other  matters.  Now,  errors  of  each  kind  are 
common. 

The  permanence  of  language  as  a  sign  of 
origin  must  be  determined,  like  every  thing 
else  of  the  same  kind,  by  induction ;  and  this 
tells  us  that  both  the  loss  and  retention  of  a  na 
tive  tongue  is  illustrated  by  remarkable  exam 
ples.  It  tells  both  ways.  In  St.  Domingo  we 
have  Negroes  speaking  French ;  and  this  is  a 
notable  instance  of  the  adoption  of  a  foreign 
tongue.  But  the  circumstances  were  peculiar. 
One  tongue  was  not  changed  for  another ;  since 
no  Negro  language  predominated.  The  real  fact 
was  that  of  a  mixture  of  languages — and  this  is 
next  to  no  language  at  all.  Hence,  when  French 
became  the  language  of  the  Haytians,  the  usual 
obstacle  of  a  previously  existing  common  native 
tongue,  pertinaciously  and  patriotically  retained, 
was  wanting.  It  superseded  an  indefinite  and 
conflicting  mass  of  .Negro  dialects,  rather  than 
any  particular  Negro  language. 


LANGUAGE — ITS    PEEMANENCE.  89 

In  the  southern  parts  of  Central  America  the 
ethnology  is  obscure,  especially  for  the  Repub 
lics  of  San  Salvador,  Nicaragua,  and  Costa  Rica. 
Yet  if  we  turn  to  Colonel  Galindo's  account  of 
them,  we  find  the  specific  statement  that  abori 
gines  still  exist,  and  that  their  language  is  the 
Spa/nish  $  not  any  native  Indian  dialect.  As 
similar  assertions  respecting  the  extinction  and 
replacement  of  original  languages  have  frequent 
ly  proved  incorrect,  let  us  assume  this  to  be 
an  over-statement — though  I  have  no  definite 
grounds  for  considering  it  one.  Over-statement 
though  it  may  be,  it  still  shows  the  direction  in 
which  things  are  going ;  and  that  is  towards  the 
supremacy  of  a  European  tongue. 

On  the  confines  of  Asia  and  Europe  there  is 
the  nation,  tribe  or  family  of  the  Bashkirs. 
Their  present  tongue  is  the  Turkish.  It  is  be 
lieved,  however,  that  originally  it  was  the  mo 
ther-tongue  of  the  Majiars  of  Hungary. 

Again,  the  present  Bulgarian  is  akin  to  the 
Russian.  Originally  it  was  a  Turk  dialect. 

Lastly — for  I  am  illustrating,  not  exhausting, 
the  subject — there  died,  in  the  year  1770,  at 
Karczagin  Hungary,  an  old  man  named  Varro; 
the  last  man,  in  Europe,  that  knew  even  a  few 
words  of  the  language  of  his  nation.  Yet  this 

CD          C 

nation  was  and  is  a  great  one ;  no  less  a  one 
than  that  of  the  ancient  Komaiiian  Turks,  some 
5* 


90  GRAMMARS   AND 

of  whom  invaded  Europe  in  the  eleventh  cen 
tury,  penetrated  as  far  as  Hungary,  settled  there 
as  conquerors,  and  retained  their  language  till 
the  death  of  this  same  Yarro.  The  rest  of  the 
nation  remained  in  Asia ;  and  the  present  occu 
pants  of  the  parts  between  the  Caspian  and  the 
Aral  are  their  descendants.  Languages,  then, 
may  be  lost;  and  one  may  be  superseded  by 
another, 

The  ancient  Etruscans,  as  a  separate  substan 
tive  nation,  are  extinct :  so  is  their  language, 
which  we  know  to  have  been  peculiar.  Yet  the 
Etruscan  blood  still  runs  in  the  veins  of  the  Flo 
rentine  and  other  Italians. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  pertinacity  with  which 
language  resists  the  attempts  to  supersede  it  is 
of  no  common  kind.  Without  going  to  Siberia, 
or  America,  the  great  habitats  of  the  broken 
and  fragmentary  families,  we  may  find  instances 
much  nearer  home  !  In  the  Isle  of  Man  the  na 
tive  Manks  still  remains  ;  though  dominant 
Norsemen  and  dominant  Anglo-Saxons  have 
brought  their  great  absorbent  languages  in  colli 
sion  witli  it.  In  Malta,  the  laborers  speak 
Arabic — with  Italian,  with  English,  and  with  a 
Lingua  Franca  around  them. 

In  the  western  extremities  of  the  Pyrenees, 
a  language  neither  French  or  Spanish  is  spoken, 
and  has  been  spoken  for  centuries — possibly 


VOCABULARIES.  91 

millenniums.  It  was  once  the  speech  of  the 
southern  half  of  France,  and  of  all  Spain.  This 
is  the  Basque  of  Biscay. 

In  contact  with  the  Turk  on  one  side,  and 
the  Greek  and  the  Slavonic  on  the  other,  the 
Albanian  of  Albania  still  speaks  his  native 
Skipetar. 

A  reasonable  philologist  makes  similarity  of 
language  strong — very  strong — -prim&  facie  evi 
dence  in  favor  of  community  of  descent. 

"When  does  it  imply  this,  and  when  does  it 
merely  denote  commercial  or  social  intercourse? 
We  can  measure  the  phenomena  of  languages 
and  exhibit  the  results  numerically.  Thus  the 
per  centage  of  words  common  to  two  languages 
may  be  1,  2,  3,  4 — 98,  99,  or  any  intermediate 
number.  But  now  comes  the  application  of  a 
maxim.  Ponderanda  non  numeranda.  We 
ask  what  sort  of  words  coincide,  as  well  as  how 
many  ?  When  the  names  of  such  objects  as  fire, 
water,  sun,  moon,  star,  hand,  tooth,  tongue,  foot, 
&c.,  agree,  we  draw  an  inference  very  different 
from  the  one  which  arises  out  of  the  presence  of 
such  words  as  ennui,  fashion,  quadrille,  violin, 
&c.  Common  sense  distinguishes  the  words 
which  are  likely  to  be  borrowed  from  one  lan 
guage  into  another,  from  those  which  were  ori 
ginally  common  to  the  two. 

There  are  a  certain  amount  of  French  words 


92  GRAMMARS   AND 

in  English,  i.  e.  of  words  borrowed  from  the 
French.  I  do  not  know  the  per  centage,  nor 
yet  the  time  required  for  their  introduction ;  and 
as  I  am  illustrating  the  subject,  rather  than  seek 
ing  specific  results,  this  is  unimportant.  Pro 
long  the  time,  and  multiply  the  words  ;  remem 
bering  that  the  former  can  be  done  indefinitely. 
Or,  instead  of  doing  this,  increase  the  points  of 
contact  between  the  languages.  "What  follows  ? 
"We  soon  begin  to  think  of  a  familiar  set  of  illus 
trations  ;  some  classical  and  some  vulgar — of  the 
Delphic  ship  so  often  mended  as  to  retain  but 
an  equivocal  identity ;  of  the  Highlander's  knife, 
with  its  two  new  blades  and  three  new  handles  ; 
of  Sir  John  Cutler's  silk-stockings  degenerated 
into  worsted  by  darnings.  We  are  brought  to 
the  edge  of  a  new  question.  We  must  tread 
slowly,  accordingly. 

In  the  English  words  call-<?^,  c&ll-eth  (call-*), 
and  call-e<^,  we  have  two  parts ;  the  first  being  the 
root  itself,  the  second  a  sign  of  person,  or  tense- 
The  same  is  the  case  with  the  word  father-^,  son-s, 
&c. ;  except  that  the  -s  denotes  case ;  and  that  it  is 
attached  to  a  substantive,  instead  of  a  verb- 
Again,  in  vris-er  we  have  the  sign  of  a  compara" 
tive  ;  in  wis-e^  that  of  a  superlative  degree.  All 
these  are  inflexions.  If  we  choose,  we  may  call 
them  inflexional  elements  ;  and  it  is  convenient 
to  do  so ;  since  we  can  then  analyse  words  and 


VOCABTTLAKIES.  93 

contrast  the  different  parts  of  them  :  e.  g.  in  call-s 
the  callr  is  radical,  the  ~s  inflexional. 

Having  become  familiarized  with  this  dis 
tinction,  we  may  now  take  a  word  of  French  or 
German  origin — ^j  fashion  or  waltz.  Each,  of 
course,  is  foreign.  Nevertheless,  when  intro 
duced  into  English,  it  takes  an  English  inflexion. 
Hence  we  say,  if  I  dress  absurdly  it  is  fashion^ 
fault;  also ,/ am  waltz-mg,  TwaUs-ed,  he  waltz-QS 
— and  so  on.  In  these  particular  words,  then, 
the  inflexional  part  has  been  English ;  even 
when  the  radical  was  foreign.  This  is  no  isolated 
fact.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  sufficiently  common 
to  be  generalized  so  that  the  grammatical  part 
of  language  has  been  accredited  with  a  perma 
nence  which  has  been  denied  to  the  alossarial  or 

t/ 

vocabular.  The  one  changes,  the  other  is  con 
stant  ;  the  one  is  immortal,  the  other  fleeting ; 
the  one  form,  the  other  matter. 

!N~ow  it  is  imaginable  that  the  glossarial  and 
grammatical  tests  may  be  at  variance.  They 
wrould  be  so  if  all  our  English  verbs  came  to  be 
French,  yet  still  retained  their  English  inflexions 
in  -ed,  -<?,  -ing,  &c.  They  would  be  so  if  all  the 
verbs  were  like  fashion,  and  all  the  substantives 
like  quadrille.  This  is  an  extreme  case  ;  still, 
it  illustrates  the  question.  Certain  Hindu  lan 
guages  are  said  to  have  nine-tenths  of  the  vocables 
common  with  a  language  called  the  Sanskrit — 


94:  PRINCIPLES    OF 

but  none  of  their  inflexions  ;  tlie  latter  "being 
chiefly  Tamul.  What,  then,  is  the  language 
itself  ?  This  is  a  question  which  divides  philo 
logists.  It  illustrates,  however,  the  difference 
between  the  two  tests — the  grammatical  and  the 
glossarial.  Of  these,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the 
former  is  the  more  constant. 

Yet  the  philological  method  of  investigation 
requires  caution.  Over  and  above  the  terms 
which  one  language  borrows  from  another,  and 
which  denote  intercourse  rather  than  affinity, 
there  are  two  other  classes  of  little  or  no  ethno 
logical  value. 

1.  Coincidences  may  ~be  merely  accidental. 
The  likelihood  of  their  being  so  is  a  part  of  the 
Doctrine  of  Chances.     The  mathematician  may 
investigate  this  :  the  philologist  merely  finds  the 
data.      Neither  has   been   done   satisfactorily, 
though  it  was  attempted  by  Dr.  T.  Young. 

2.  Coincidences  may  have  an  organic  connec 
tion.     ~No  one  would  say  that  because  two  na 
tions  called  the  same  bird  by  the  name  cuckoo, 
the  term  had  been  borrowed  by  either  one  from 
the  other,  or  by  both   from  a  common  source. 
The  true  reason  would  be  plain  enough.     Two 
populations  gave  a  name  on  imitative  principles, 
and  imitated  the  same  object.     Son  and  brother ', 
sister  and  daughter — if  these  terms  agree,  the 
chances  are  that  a  philological  affinity  is  at  the 


PHILOLOGICAL   CLASSIFICATION.  95 

bottom  of  the  agreement.  But  does  the  same 
apply  to  papa  and  mama,  identical  in  English, 
Carib,  and  perhaps  twenty  other  languages? 
"No.  They  merely  show  that  the  infants  of  dif 
ferent  countries  begin  with  the  same  sounds. 

Such — and  each  class  is  capable  of  great  ex 
pansion — are  the  cases  where  philology  requires 
caution.  Another  matter  now  suggests  itself. 

To  be  valid,  a  classification  must  be  real ;  not 
nominal  or  verbal — not  a  mere  book-maker's  ar 
rangement.  Families  must  be  in  definite  de 
grees  of  relationship.  This,  too,  will  bear  illus 
tration.  A  man  wants  a  relation  to  leave  his 
money  to  ;  he  is  an  Englishman,  and  by  relation 
means  nothing  more  distant  than  a  third  cousin. 
It  is  nothing  to  him  if,  in  Scotland,  a  fifth  cousin- 
ship  is  recognised.  He  has  not  found  the  relation 
he  wants  ;  he  has  merely  found  a  greater  amount 
of  latitude  given  to  the  term.  Few  oversights  have 
done  more  harm  than  the  neglect  of  this  distinc 
tion.  Twenty  years  ago  the  Sanskrit,  Sclavonic, 
Greek-and-Latin,  and  Gothic  languages  formed  a 
class.  This  class  was  called  Indo-Germanic.  Its 
western  limits  were  in  Germany  ;  its  eastern  in 
Hindostan.  The  Celtic  of  Wales,  Cornwall,  Brit 
tany,  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  the  Isle  of  Man  was 
not  included  in  it.  Neither  was  it  included  in 
any  other  group.  It  was  anywhere  or  nowhere — 
in  any  degree  of  isolation.  Dr.  Prichard  under- 


96  THE   SO-CALLED 

took  to  fix  it.  He  did  so — well  and  successfully. 
He  showed  that,  so  far  from  being  isolated,  it 
was  connected  with  the  Greek,  German,  and 
Sclavonic  by  a  connection  with  the  Sanskrit,  or 
(changing  the  expression)  with  the  Sanskrit 
through  the  Sclavonic,  German,  and  Greek — any 
or  all.  The  mother-tongue  from  which  all  these 
broke  was  supposed  to  be  in  Asia.  Dr.  Prich- 
ard's  work  was  entitled  the  "  Eastern  Origin  of 
the  Celtic  Nations."  Did  this  make  the  Celtic 
Indo-Germanic  ?  It  was  supposed  to  do  so.  Nay, 
more — it  altered  the  name  of  the  class  ;  which 
was  now  called,  as  it  has  been  since,  Indo-Euro 
pean — inconveniently.  A.  relationship  was  mis 
taken  for  the  relationship.  The  previous  tongues 
were  (say)  second  cousins.  The  Celtic  was  a 
fourth  or  fifth.  What  was  the  result  ?  Not  that 
a  new  second  cousin  wras  found,  but  that  the  fa 
mily  circle  was  enlarged. 

What  follows  ?  Dr.  Prichard's  fixation  of  the 
Celtic  as  a  member  of  even  the  same  clan  with 
the  German,  &c.  was  an  addition  to  ethnogra 
phical  philology  that  many  inferior  investigators 
strove  to  rival ;  and  it  came  to  be  current  belief 
— acted  on  if  not  avowed — that  tongues  as  like 
the  Celtic  as  the  Celtic  was  to  the  German  were 
Indo-European  also.  This  bid  fair  to  inundate 
the  class — to  make  it  prove  too  much — to  render 
it  no  class  at  all.  The  Albanian,  Basque,  Etrus- 


INDO-EUROPEAN    CLASS.  07 

can,  Lap,  and  others  followed.  The  outlier  of  the 
group  once  created  served  as  a  nucleus  for  fresh 
accumulations.  A  strange  language  of  Caucasus 
— the  Iron  or  Ossetic — was  placed  by  ICaproth 
as  Lido-Germanic ;  and  that  upon  reasonable 
grounds,  considering  the  unsettled  state  of  criti 
cism.  Meanwhile,  the  Georgian,  another  tongue 
of  those  same  mysterious  mountains,  wants 
placing.  It  has  undoubted  Ossetic — or  Iron — 
affinities.  But  the  Ossetic — or  Iron — is  Indo- 
European.  So,  therefore,  is  the  Georgian.  This 
is  a  great  feat  ;  since  the  Caucasian  tongues  and 
the  Caucasian  skulls  now  agree,  both  having 
their  affinities  with  Europe — as  they  ought  to 
have.  But  what  if  both  the  Iron  and  Georgian 
are  half  Chinese,  or  Tibetan,  i.  e.  are  all  but  mo 
nosyllabic  languages  both  in  grammar  and  voca 
bles  ?  If  such  be  the  case,  the  term  "  Indo- 
European"  wants  revising  ;  and  not  only  that — 
the  principles  on  which  terms  are  fixed  and 
classes  created  want  revising  also.  At  the  same 
time,  the  "  Eastern  Origin  of  Celtic  Nations" 
contains  the  most  definite  addition  to  philology 
that  the  present  century  has  produced  ;  and  the 
proper  compliment  to  it  is  Mr.  Garnett's  review 
of  it  in  the  "  Quarterly  ;  "  the  first  of  a  series  of 
masterly  and  unsurpassed  specimens  of  induc 
tive  philology  applied  to  the  investigation  of  the 
true  nature  of  the  inflexions  of  the  Yerb.  But 
this  is  episodical. 


98  UNIVERSALITY 

The  next  instrument  of  ethnological  criti 
cism  is  to  be  found  in  the  phenomena  them 
selves  of  the  disperson  and  distribution  of  our 
species. 

First,  as  to  its  universality.  In  this  respect 
we  must  look  minutely  before  we  shall  find 
places  where  Man  is  not.  These,  if  we  find  them 
at  all,  will  come  under  one  of  two  conditions  ; 
the  climate  will  be  extreme,  or  the  isolation  ex 
cessive.  For  instances  of  the  first,  we  take  the 
Poles ;  and,  as  far  as  the  Antarctic  Circle  is 
concerned,  we  find  no  inhabitants  in  the  ice 
bound  regions — few  and  far  between — of  its 
neighborhood  ;  none  south  of  55°  S.  lat.,  or 
the  extremity  of  the  Tierra  del  Fuego.  This, 
however,  is  peopled.  We  must  remember, 
however,  that  in  the  Southern  Ocean  such  re 
gions  as  New  South  Shetland  and  Victoria 
Land,  are  isolated  as  well  as  cold  and  frozen. 

The  North  Pole,  however,  must  be  ap 
proached  within  25°  before  we  lose  sight  of 
Man,  or  find  him  excluded  from  even  a  perma 
nent  habitation.  Spitsbergen  is  beyond  the 
limits  of  human  occupancy.  Nova  Zembla, 
when  first  discovered,  was  also  uninhabited. 
So  was  Iceland.  Here,  however,  it  was  the  iso 
lation  of  the  island  that  made  it  so.  A  hardy 
stock  of  men,  nearly  related  to  ourselves,  have 
occupied  it  since  the  ninth  century ;  and  con- 


OF   THE   DISTRIBUTION    OF   MAN.  99 

tinental  Greenland  is  peopled  as  far  as  the  75th 
degree — though,  perhaps,  only  as  a  summer  re 
sidence. 

Far  to  the  east  of  Nova  Zembla  and  oppo 
site  to  the  country  of  the  Yukahiri — a  hardy 
people  on  the  rivers  Kolyma  and  Indijirka,  and 
within  the  Arctic  Circle — lies  the  island  of  New 
Siberia.  I  find  from  "Wrangell's  Travels  in  Si 
beria,  that  certain  expatriated  Yukahiri  are  be 
lieved  to  have  fled  thither.  Have  they  lived  or 
died  ?  Have  they  reached  the  island  ?  In  case 
they  have  done  so,  and  kept  body  and  soul  to 
gether,  New  Siberia  is  probably  the  most  north 
ern  spot  of  the  inhabited  world. 

How  cold  a  country  must  be  in  order  to  re 
main  empty  of  men,  we  have  seen.  Such  local 
ities  are  but  few.  None  are  too  liot — unless, 
indeed,  we  believe  the  centre  of  Equatorial  Af 
rica  to  be  a  solitude. 

In  South  America  there  is  a  great  blank  in 
the  Maps.  For  many  degrees  on  each  side  of 
the  Upper  Amazons  lies  a  vast  tract — said  to 
be  a  jungle — and  marked  Sirionos,  the  name  of 
a  frontier  population.  Yet  the  Sirionos  are  not, 
for  one  moment,  supposed  to  fill  up  the  vast 
hiatus.  At  the  same  time,  there  are  few,  or 
none,  besides.  Is  this  tract  a  drear  unhuman- 
ized  waste?  It  is  said  to  be  so — to  be  wet, 
woody,  and  oppressively  malarious.  Yet,  tins 


100  LARGE    AND    SMALL 

merely  means  that  there  is  a  forest  and  a  swamp 
of  a  certain  magnitude,  and  of  a  certain  de 
gree  of  impenetrability. 

Other  such  areas  are  unexplored — yet  we 
presume  them  to  be  occupied  ;  though  ever  so 
thinly :  e.  g.  the  interiors  of  Xew  Guniea  and 
Australia. 

That  Greenland  was  known  to  the  early  Ice 
landers  is  well  known.  And  that  it  was  occu 
pied  when  so  first  known  is  also  certain.  One 
of  the  geographical  localities  mentioned  in  an 
old  Sa«;a,  has  an  Eskimo  word  for  one  of  its 

CD      / 

elements — Utibuks-firth=the  firth  of  the  isth 
mus  ;  Utibuk  in  Eskimo  meaning  isthmus. 

Of  the  islands  originally  uninhabited,  those 
which  are,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  large  and 
near  continents,  are  Madeira  and  Iceland — the 
former  being  a  lonely  wood.  The  Canaries, 
though  smaller  and  more  isolated,  have  been 
occupied  by  the  remarkable  family  of  the 
Guanches.  Add  to  these,  Ascension,  St.  He 
lena,  the  Galapagos,  Kerguelen's  Island,  and  a 
few  others. 

Easter  Island,  a  speck  in  the  vast  Pacific, 
and  more  than  half  way  between  Asia  and 
America,  exhibited  both  inhabitants  and  ruins 
to  its  first  discoverers. 

Such  is  the  horizontal  distribution  of  Man ; 
i.  e.  his  distribution  according  to  the  degrees  of 


ETHNOLOGICAL    AREAS.  101 

latitude.  "What  other  animal  has  such  a  range  ? 
"What  species  ?  What  genus  or  order  ?  Con 
trast  with  this  the  localized  habitats  of  the 
Orang-utan,  and  the  Chimpanzee  as  species  ;  of 
the  Apes  as  genera ;  of  the  Marsupialia  as 
orders. 

The  vertical  distribution  is  as  wide.  By  ver 
tical  1  mean  elevation  above  the  level  of  the 
sea.  On  the  high  table-land  of  Pamer,  we 
have  the  Kerghiz ;  summer  visitants  at  least, 
where  the  Yak  alone,  among  domesticated  ani 
mals,  lives  and  breathes  in  the  rarefied  atmos 
phere.  The  town  of  Quito  is  more  than  10,000 
feet  above  the  sea ;  Walcheren  is,  perphaps, 
below  the  level  of  it. 

"Who  expects  uniformity  of  physiognomy 
or  frame  with  such  a  distribution  ? 

The  size  of  ethnological  areas. — Compara 
tively  speaking,  Europe  is  pretty  equally  divid 
ed  amongst  the  European  families.  The  Slavo 
nic  populations  of  Bohemia,  Silesia,  Poland, 
Servia,  and  Russia  may,  perhaps,  have  more 
than  their  due — still  the  French,  Italians,  Span 
iards,  Portuguese,  and  Wallachians,  all  speak 
ing  languages  of  classical  origin,  have  their 
share;  and  so  has  our  own. Germanic  or  Gothic 
family  of  English,  Dutch,  Frisians,  Bavarians, 
and  Scandinavians.  Nevertheless,  there  are  a 
few  families  as  limited  in  geographical  area  as 


102  LAEGE   AND   SMALL 

subordinate  in  political  importance.  There  are 
the  Escaldunac,  or  Basques, — originally  the  oc 
cupants  of  all  Spain  and  half  France,  now  pent 
up  in  a  corner  of  the  Pyrenees — the  Welsh  of 
the  Iberic  Peninsula.  There  are,  also,  the 
Skipetar,  or  Albanians,  wedged  in  between 
Greece,  Turkey  and  Dalmatia.  Nevertheless, 
the  respective  areas  of  the  European  families 
are  pretty  equally  distributed  ;  and  the  land  of 
Europe  is  like  a  lottery,  wherein  all  the  prizes 
are  of  an  appreciable  value. 

The  comparison  with  Asia  verifies  this.  In 
immediate  contact  with  the  vast  Turkish  popu 
lation  centered  in  Independent  Tartary,  but 
spread  over  an  area  reaching,  more  or  less  con 
tinuously,  from  Africa  to  the  Icy  Sea,  (an  area 
larger  than  the  whole  of  Europe),  come  the 
tribes  of  Caucasus — Georgians,  Circassians,  Les- 
gians,  Mizjeji,  and  Iron ;  five  well-defined  groups, 
each  falling  into  subordinate  divisions,  and  some 
of  them  into  subdivisions.  The  language  of 
Constantinople  is  understood  at  the  Lena.  In 
the  mountain  range  between  the  Caspian  and 
the  Black  Sea,  the  mutually  unintelligible  lan 
guages  are  at  least  fifteen — perhaps  more,  cer 
tainly  not  fewer.  JSTow,  the  extent  of  land  cov 
ered  by  the  Turk  family,  shows  the  size  to  which 
an  ethnological  area  may  attain ;  whilst  the 
multiplicity  of  mutually  unintelligible  tongues 


ETHNOLOGICAL    AREAS.  103 

of  Caucasus,  shows  how  closely  families  may  be 
packed.  Their  geographical  juxtaposition  gives 
prominence  to  the  contrast. 

At  the  first  view,  this  contrast  seems  remark 
able.  So  far  from  beino;  so.  it  is  of  continual 

O  7 

occurrence.  In  China,  the  language  is  one  and 
indivisible ;  on  its  south-western  frontier  the 
tongues  are  counted  by  the  dozen — just  as  if  in 
Yorkshire,  there  were  but  one  provincial  dialect 
throughout ;  two  in  Lincolnshire  ;  and  twenty 
in  Rutland. 

The  same  contrast  re-appears  in  North 
America.  In  Canada  and  the  Northern  States, 
the  Algonkin  area  is  measured  by  the  degrees 
of  latitude  and  longitude  ;  in  Louisiana  and 
Alabama  by  the  mile. 

The  same  in  South  America.  One  tongue — 
the  Guarani — covers  half  the  continent.  Else 
where,  a  tenth  part  of  it  contains  a  score. 

The  same  in  Southern  Africa.  From  the  Line 
to  the  neighborhood  of  the  Cape,  all  is  KafFre. 
Between  the  Gambia  and  the  Gaboon  there  are 
more  than  twenty  different  divisions. 

The  same  in  the  North.  The  Berbers  reach 
from  the  Valley  of  the  Nile  to  the  Canaries, 
and  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  parts 'about 
Borneo.  In  Borneo,  there  are  said  to  be  thirty 
different  languages. 

Such  are  areas  in  size,  and  in  relation  to 


104  CONTRAST   BETWEEN 

each  other ;  like  the  bishoprics  and  curacies  of 
our  church,  large  and  small,  with  a  difficulty 
in  ascertaining  the  average.  However,  the 
simple  epithets,  great  and  small,  are  suggestive  ; 
since  the  former  implies  an  encroaching,  the 
latter  receding  population. 

A  distribution  over  continents  is  one  thing ; 
a  distribution  over  islands  another.  The  first  is 
easiest  made  when  the  world  is  young,  and 
when  the  previous  occupants  create  no  obstacles. 
The  second  implies  maritime  skill  and  enter 
prise,  and  maritime  skill  improves  with  the  ex 
perience  of  mankind.  One  of  the  greatest 
facts  of  ethnological  distribution  and  dispersion 
belongs  to  this  class.  All  the  islands  of  the 
Pacific  are  peopled  by  the  members  of  one 
stock,  or  family — the  Polynesian.  These  we 
find  as  far  north  as  the  Sandwich  Islands,  as  far 
south  as  New  Zealand,  and  in  Easter  Island, 
half-way  between  Asia  and  America.  So  much 
for  the  dispersion.  But  this  is  not  all ;  the  dis 
tribution  is  as  remarkable.  Madagascar  is  an 
African  rather  than  an  Asiatic  island,  within 
easy  sail  of  Africa ;  the  exact  island  for  an 
African  population.  Yet,  ethnologically,  it  is 
Asiatic — the  same  family  which  we  find  in  Su 
matra,  Borneo,  the  Moluccas,  the  Mariannes,  the 
Carolines,  and  Polynesia  being  Malagasi  also. 

Contrast  between  contiguous  populations. — 


CONTINUOUS    POPULATIONS.  105 

Ethnological  resemblance  by  no  means  coin 
cides  with  geographical  contiguity.     The  gen 
eral  character  of  the   circumpolar  families  of 
the  Arctic  Circle  is  that  of  the  Laplander,  the 
Samoeid,  and  the  Eskimo.  Yet  the  zone  of  popu 
lation  that  encircles  the  inhospitable  shores  of 
the  Polar  sea  is  not  exclusively  either  Lap  or 
Samoeid — nor    yet    Eskimo.     In   Europe,   the 
Laplander  finds  a  contrast  on  each  side.     There 
is  the  Norwegian  on  the  west ;  the  Finlander 
on  the  east.     We  can  explain  this.     The  former 
is  but  a  recent  occupant ;  not  a  natural,  but  an 
intruder.     This  we  infer  from  the  southern  dis 
tribution  of  the  other  members  of  his  family, 
who  are  Danish,  German,  Dutch,  English,  and 
American.     For  the  same  reason  the  Icelander 
differs  from  the  Greenlander.     The  Finlander, 
though  more  closely  allied  to  the  Lap  than  the 
Norwegian — belonging  to  the  same  great  Ugri- 
an  family  of  mankind — is  still  a  southern  mem 
ber  of  his  family  ;  a  family  whose  continuation 
extends  to  the  Lower  Yolga,  and  prolongations 
of  which  are  found  in  Hungary.     East  of  the 
Finlander,  the  Russian  displaces  the  typically 
circumpolar  Samoeid ;  whilst  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Lena  we  have  the  Yakuts — Turk  in  blood 
and  tongue,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  form 
also. 

In  America  the  circumpolar  population  is 
6 


100  CONTINUITY 

generally  Eskimo.  Yet,  at  one  point,  we  find 
even  the  verge  of  the  Arctic  shore  occupied  by 
a  population  of  tall,  fine-looking  athletes,  six  feet 
high,  well-made,  and  handsome  in  countenance. 
These  are  the  Digothi  Indians,  called  also  Lou- 
cheux.  Their  locality  is  the  mouth  of  the 
'McKenzie  River ;  but  their  language  shows  that 
their  origin  is  further  south,  i.  <?.,  that  they  are 
Ivoluches  within  the  Eskimo  area. 

In  Southern  Africa  we  have  the  Hottentot  in 
geographical  proximity  to  the  Kaffre,  yet  the 
contrast  between  the  two  is  considerable.  Sim 
ilar  examples  are  numerous.  What  do  they  de 
note  \  Generally,  but  not  always,  they  denote 
encroachment  and  displacement ;  encroachment 
which  tells  iis  which  of  the  two  families  has  been 
the  stronger,  and  displacement  which  has  the 
following  effect.  It  obliterates  those  interme 
diate  and  transitional  forms  which  connect  vari 
eties,  and  so  brings  the  more  extreme  cases  of 
difference  in  geographical  contact,  and  in  ethno 
logical  contrast ;  hence  encroachment,  displace 
ment,  and  the  obliteration  of  transitional  forms 
are  terms  required  for  the  full  application  of  the 
phsenomena  of  distribution  as  an  instrument  of 
ethnological  criticism. 

Continuity  and  isolation. — In  Siberia  there 
are  two  isolated  populations,  the  Yakuts  on  the 
Lower  Lena,  and  the  Soiot  on  the  Upper  Yene- 


AND    ISOLATION.  107 

sey.  The  former,  as  aforesaid,  are  Turk ;  but 
they  are  surroundud  by  nations  other  than  Turk. 
They  are  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  stock. 

The  Soiot  in  like  manner  are  surrounded  by 
strange  populations.  Their  true  relations  are 
the  Samoeids  of  the  Icy  Sea ;  but  between  these 
two  branches  of  the  stock  there  is  a  heterogeneous 
population  of  Turks  and  Yeneseians — so-called. 

The  great  Iroquois  family  of  America  is 
separated  into  two  parts — one  northern  and  one 
southern.  Between  these  lie  certain  members 
of  the  Algonkin  class.  Like  the  Soiot,  and  the 
Northern  Samoeids,  the  two  branches  of  the  Iro 
quois  are  separated. 

The  Majiars  of  Hungary  are  wholly  inclosed 
by  non-Hungarian  populations  ;  and  their  near 
est  kinsmen  are  the  Voguls  of  the  Uralian  Moun 
tains,  far  to  the  north-east  of  Moscow. 

This  shows  that  ethnological  areas  may  be 
either  uninterrupted  or  interrupted  ;  continuous 
or  discontinuous  ;  unkroken  or  with  isolated  frag 
ments  ;  and  a  little  consideration  will  show,  that 
wherever  there  is  isolation  there  has  been  dis 
placement.  "Whether  the  land  has  risen,  or  the  sea 
encroached,  is  another  question.  We  know  why 
the  Majiars  stand  separate  from  the  other  Ugrian 
nations.  They  intruded  themselves  into  Europe 
within  the  historical  period,  cutting  their  way 
with  the  sword ;  and  the  parts  between  them 


108  CONTINUITY    AND    ISOLATION. 

and  their  next  of  kin  were  never  more  Majiar 
than  they  are  at  the  present  moment. 

But  we  know  no  such  thing  concerning  the 
Iroquois ;  and  we  infer  something  quite  the  con 
trary.  We  believe  that  they  once  held  all  the 
country  that  now  separates  their  two  ^branches, 
and  a  great  deal  more  beside.  But  the  Algon- 
kins  encroached  ;  partially  dispossessing,  and 
partially  leaving  them  in  occupation. 

In  either  case,  however,  there  has  been  dis 
placement  ;  and  the  displacement  is  the  infer 
ence  from  the  discontinuity. 

But  we  must  remember  that  true  disconti 
nuity  can  exist  in  continents  only.  The  popula 
tions  of  two  islands  may  agree,  whilst  that  of  a 
whole  archipelago  lying  between  them  may  differ. 
Yet  this  is  discontinuity ;  since  the  sea  is  an 
unbroken  chain,  and  the  intervening  obstacle  can 
be  sailed  round,  instead  of  crossed.  The  nearest 
way  from  the  continent  of  Asia  to  the  Tahitian 
archipelago — the  nearest  part  of  Polynesia — is 
via  New  Guinea,  New  Ireland,  and  the  New 
Hebrides.  All  these  islands,  however,  are  in 
habited  by  a  different  division  of  the  Oceanic 
population.  Does  this  indicate  displacement  ? 
No  !  it  merely  suggests  the  Philippines,  the  Pe- 
lews,  the  Carolines,  the  Ealik  and  Radak  groups, 
and  the  Navigators'  Isles,  as  the  route ;  and  such 
it  almost  certainly  was. 


CONVENTIONAL   CENTRE.  109 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Details  of  distribution — their  conventional  character — conver 
gence  from  the  circumference  to  the  centre — Fuegians,  Pata- 
gonian,  Pampa,  and  Chaco  Indians— Peruvians — D'Orbig- 
iry's  characters — other  South  American  Indians — of  the  Mis 
sions — of  Guiana — of  Venezuela — Gnarani — Caribs — Central 
America — Mexican  civilization  no  isolated  phenomenon — 
North  American  Indians — Eskimo — apparent  objections  to 
their  connection  with  the  Americans  and  Asiatics — Tasmani- 
ans — Australians — Papud — Polynesians — Micronesians — Ma- 
lagasi  — Hottentots — Kaffres — Negroes — Berbers  —  Abyssin- 
ians — Copts — the  Semitic  family — Primary  and  secondary 
migration. 

IF  the  inhabited  world  were  one  large  cir 
cular  island  ;  if  its  population  were  admitted  to 
have  been  diffused  over  its  surface  from  some 
single  point ;  and  if  that  single  point  were  at 
one  and  the  same  time  unascertained,  and  re 
quiring  investigation,  what  would  be  the  method 
of  our  inquiries  ?  I  suppose  that  both  history 
and  tradition  are  silent,  and  that  the  absence  of 
other  data  of  the  same  kind,  force  us  upon  the 
general  probabilities  of  the  case,  and  a  large 
amount  of  a  priori  argument. 

We  should  ask  what  point  would  give  us  the 
existing  phenomena  with  the  least  amount  of 


110  CONVENTIONAL    CENTRE. 

migration  ;  and  we  should  ask  this  upon  the 
simple  principle  of  not  multiplying  causes  un 
necessarily.  The  answer  would  be — the  centre. 
From  the  centre  we  can  people  the  parts  about 
the  circumference,  without  making  any  line  of 
migration  longer  than  half  a  diameter ;  and 
without  supposing  any  one  out  of  such  numerous 
lines  to  be  longer  than  the  other.  This  .last  is 
the  chief  point — the  point  which  more  especially 
fixes  us  to  the  centre  as  a  hypothetical  birth 
place  ;  since,  the  moment  we  say  that  any  part 
of  the  circumference  was  reached  by  a  shorter 
or  longer  line  than  any  other,  we  make  a  specific 
assertion,  requiring  specific  arguments  to  sup 
port  it.  These  may,  or  may  not  exist.  Until, 
however,  they  have  been  brought  forward,  we 
apply  the  rule  de  non  apparentibus,  &c.,  and 
keep  to  our  conventional  and  provisional  point 
in  the  centre — remembering,  of  course,  its  pro 
visional  and  conventional  character,  and  recog 
nising  its  existence  only  as  long  as  the  search 
for  something  more  real  and  definite  continues. 
In  the  earth  as  it  is,  we  can  do  something  of 
the  same  kind  ;  taking  six  extreme  points  as  our 
starting-places,  and  investigating  the  extent  to 
which  they  converge.  These  six  points  are  the 
following : 

1.  Tierra  del  Fuego. 

2.  Tasmania  (Van  Diemen's  Land.) 


TIERRA   DEL  FUEQO.  Ill 

3.  Easter  Island — the  furthest  extremity  of 
Polynesia. 

4.  The  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  or  the  country 
of  the  Saabs  (Hottentots). 

5.  Lapland. 

6.  Ireland. 

From  these  we  work  through  America,  Austra 
lia,  Polynesia,  Africa,  and  Europe,  to  Asia — 
some  part  of  which  gives  us  our  conventional, 
provisional,  and  hypothetical  centre. 

I.  From  Tierra  del  Puego  to  the  nort7i-east- 
ern  parts  of  Asia. — The  Fuegians  of  the  island 
have  so  rarely  been  separated  from  the  Patago- 
nians  ot  the  continent  that  there  are  no  recog 
nised  elements  of  uncertainty  in  this  quarter, 
distant  as  it  is.  Maritime  habits  connect  them 
with  their  northern  neighbors  on  the  west ;  and 
that  long  labyrinth  of  archipelagoes  which  runs 
up  to  the  southern  border  of  Chili  is  equally 
Fuegian  and  Patagonian.  Here  we  are  remind 
ed  of  the  habits  of  some  of  the  Malay  tribes, 
under  a  very  different  sky,  and  amongst  the 
islets  about  Sincapore — of  the  Bajows,  or  sea- 
gipsies,  boatmen  whose  home  is  on  the  water, 
and  as  unfixed  as  that  element ;  wanderers  from 
one  group  to  another;  fishermen  rather  than 
traders  ;  not  strong-handed  enough  to  be  pirates 
and  not  industrious  enough  to  be  cultivators. 
Such  skill  as  the  Fuegian  shows  at  all,  he  shows 


112  TIERRA    DEL    FUEGO. 

in  his  canoe,  his  paddles,  his  spears,  his  bow,  his 
slings,  and  his  domestic  architecture.  All  are 
rude — the  bow-strings  are  made  exclusively  of 
the  sinews  of  animals,  his  arrows  headed  with 
stone.  Of  wood  there  is  little,  and  of  metal  less  ; 
and,  low  as  is  the  latitude,  the  dress,  or  undress, 
is  said  to  make  a  nearer  approach  to  absolute 
nakedness  'than  is  to  be  found  in  many  of  the  in~ 
tertropical  countries. 

In  size  they  fall  short  of  the  continental  Pata- 
gonians  ;  in  color  and  physical  conformation 
they  approach  them  very  closely.  The  same 
broad  and  flattened  face  occurs  in  both,  remind 
ing  some  writers  of  the  Eskimo,  others  uf  the 
Chinuk.  Their  language  is  certainly  referable 
to  the  Patagonian  class,  though,  probably,  unin 
telligible  to  a  Patagonian. 

Within  the  island  itself  there  are  differences  ; 
degrees  of  discomfort ;  and  degrees  in  its  effects 
upon  the  bodily  frame.  At  the  eastern  extremi 
ty*  the  population  wore  the  skins  of  land-animals, 
and  looked  like  hunters  rather  than  fishers  and 
sealers.  Otherwise,  as  a  general  rule,  the  Fu- 
egians  are  boatmen. 

Not  so  their  nearest  kinsmen.  They  are  all 
horsemen;  and  in  their  more  northern  localities 
the  most  formidable  ones  in  the  world — Patago- 
nians  of  considerable  but  exaggerated  stature, 

*  Pickering,  Races  of  Men,  p.  19. 


PATAGONIA THE    PAMPAS.  113 

Pampa  Indians  between  Buenos  Ayres  and  the 
southern  Andes,  and,  higher  up,  the  Chaco  In 
dians  of  the  water-system  of  the  river  Plata.  To 
these  must  be  added  two  other  families — one  on 
the  Pacific  and  one  on  the  Atlantic — the  Arau- 
canians  ot  Chili,  and  the  Charruas  of  the  lower 
La  Plata. 

Except  in  the  impracticable  heights  of  the 
Andes  of  Chili,  and,  as  suggested  above,  in  the 
island  of  Tierra  del  Fuego,  the  same  equestrian 
habits  characterize  all  these  populations;  and, 
one  and  all,  the  same  indomitable  and  savage 
independence.  Of  the  Chaco  Indians,  the  Tono- 
cote  are  partially  settled,  and  imperfectly  Chris 
tianized  ;  but  the  Abiponians — very  Centaurs 
in  their  passionate  equestrianism — the  Mboco- 
bis,  the  Mataguayos,  and  others,  are  the  dread 
of  the  Spaniards  at  the  present  moment.  The 
resistance  of  the  Araucanians  of  Chili,  has 
given  an  epic*  to  the  country  of  their  con 
querors. 

Of  the  Charruas,  every  man  was  a  warrior ; 
self-relying,  strong  and  cruel ;  with  his  hand 
against  the  Spaniard,  and  with  his  hand  against 
the  other  aborigines.  Many  of  these  they  ex 
terminated,  and  too  proud  to  enter  into  confed 
eration,  always  fought  single-handed.  In  1831, 
the  President  of  Uraguay  ordered  their  total 

*  The  Araucana  of  Ercilla. 

6* 


m 

destruction,  and  they  were  cut  down,  root  and 
branch  ;  a  few  survivors  only  remaining. 

Minus  the  Fuegians,  this  division  is  preemi 
nently  natural ;  yet  the  Fuegians  cannot  be  dis 
connected  from  it.  As  a  proof  of  the  physical 
differences  being  small,  I  will  add  the  descrip 
tion  of  a  naturalist — D'Orbigny — who  separates 
them.  They  evidently  lie  within  a  very  small 
compass. 

a.  Araucanian  branch  of  the  Ando-Peru- 
vians. — Color  light  olive,  form  massive,  trunk 
somewhat  disproportionately  long,  face  nearly 
circular,  nose  short  and  flat,  lips  thin,  physiog 
nomy  sombre,  cold. 

b.  Pampa  'branch  of  the  Pampa  Indians. — 
Color  deep  olive  brown  or  maroon,  form  Her 
culean,   forehead  vaulted,  face  large,  flat,  ob 
long,  nose  short,  nostrils  large,  mouth  wide,  lips 
large,  eyes  horizontal,  physiognomy  cold,  often 
savage. 

D'Orbigny  is  a  writer  by  no  means  inclined 
to  undervalue  differences.  Nevertheless  he  pla 
ces  the  Peruvians  and  the  Araucanians  in  the 
same  primary  division.  This  shows  that,  if 
other  characters  connect  them,  there  is  nothing 
very  conclusive  in  the  way  of  physiognomy 
against  their  relationship.  I  think  that  certain 
other  characters  do  connect  them — language 
most  especially.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  no 


PERUVIANS.  115 

denying  important  contrasts.  The  civilization 
of  Peru  has  no  analogue  beyond  the  Tropics ; 
and  if  we  are  to  consider  this  as  a  phenomenon 
per  se,  as  the  result  of  an  instinct  as  different 
from  those  of  the  Charrua  as  the  architectual 
impulses  of  the  bee  and  the  hornet,  broad  and 
trenchant  must  be  our  lines  of  demarcation. 
Yet  no  such  lines  can  be  drawn.  Undoubted 
members  of  the  Quichua  stock  of  the  Inca  Peru 
vians  (architects  and  conquerors,  as  that  parti 
cular  branch  was)  are  but  ordinary  Indians — 
like  the  Aymaras.  Nay,  the  modern  Peruvians, 
when  contrasted  with  their  ancestors,  are  in  the 
same  category.  The  present  occupants  of  the 
parts  about  Titicaca  and  Tiaguanaca  wonder  at 
the  ruins  around  them,  and  confess  their  inabil 
ity  to  rival  them,  just  as  a  modern  Greek  thinks 
of  the  Phidian  Jupiter  and  despairs.  Again, 
the  gap  is  accounted  for — since  most  of  those 
intervening  populations  which  may  have  exhi 
bited  transitional  characters  have  become  either 
extinct,  or  denationalized.  Between  the  Peru 
vians  and  Araucanians,  the  Atacamas  and  Chan- 
gos  are  the  only  remaining  populations — under 
10,000  in  number,  and  but  little  known. 

Nevertheless,  an  unequivocally  allied  popu 
lation  of  the  Peruvian  stock  takes  us  from  28° 
S.  lat.  to  the  Equator.  Its  unity  within  itself  is 
undoubted;  and  its  contrast  with  the  next  near- 


116  ANGLE   OF   MIGRATION. 

est  families  is  no  greater  than  the  displace 
ments  which  have  taken  place  around,  and  our 
own  ignorance  in  respect  to  parts  in  contact 
with  it. 

Of  all  the  populations  of  the  world,  the  Pe 
ruvian  is  the  most  vertical  in  its  direction.  Its 
line  is  due  north  and  south ;  its  breadth  but  nar 
row.  The  Pacific  is  at  one  side,  and  the  Andes 
at  the  other.  One  is  well-nigh  as  definite  a  limit 
as  the  other.  "When  we  cross  the  Cordilleras, 
the  Peruvian  type  has  changed. 

The  Peruvians  lie  between  the  Tropics.  They 
cross  the  Equator.  One  of  their  Republics — 
Ecuador — even  takes  its  name  from  the  merid 
ian.  But  they  are  also  mountaineers  ;  and, 
though  their  sun  is  that  of  Africa,  their  soil  is 
that  of  the  Himalaya.  Hence,  their  locality  pre 
sents  a  conflict,  balance,  or  antogonism  of  cli- 
matologic  influences ;  and  the  degrees  of  alti 
tude  are  opposed  to  those  of  latitude. 

Again,  their  line  of  migration  is  at  a  right 
angle  with  their  Equatorial  parallel — that  is, 
if  we  assume  them  to  have  come  from  ^Torth 
America.  The  bearing  of  this  is  as  follows  : — 
The  town  of  Quito  is  about  as  far  from  Mexico 
due  north,  as  it  is  from  French  Guiana  due  west. 
Now  if  we  suppose  the  line  of  migration  to  have 
reached  Peru  from  the  latter  country,  the  great- 
great-ancestors  of  the  Peruvians  would  be  peo- 


ANGLE    OF   MIGRATION. 

pie  as  inter-tropical  as  themselves,  and  the  in 
fluences  of  climate  would  coincide  with  the  in 
fluences  of  descent;  whereas  if  it  were  North 
America  from  which  they  originated,  their  an 
cestors  of  a  corresponding  generation  would  re 
present  the  effect  of  a  climate  twenty-five  de 
grees  further  north — these,  in  their  turn,  being 
descended  from  the  occupants  of  the  temperate, 
and  they  from  those  of  the  frigid  zone.  The 
full  import  of  the  relation  of  the  lines  of  migra 
tion — real  or  hypothetical — to  the  degrees  of 
latitude  has  yet  to  be  duly  appreciated.  To  say 
that  the  latter  go  for  nothing  because  the  inter- 
tropical  Indian  of  South  America  is  not  as 
black  as  the  negro,  is  to  compare  things  that  re 
semble  each  other  in  one  particular  only. 

It  is  Peru  where  the  ancient  sepulchral  re 
mains  have  complicated  ethnology.  The  skulls 
from  ancient  burial-places  are  preternaturally 
flattened.  Consider  this  natural ;  and  you  have 
a  fair  reason  for  the  recognition  of  a  fresh  species 
of  the  genus  Homo.  But  is  it  legitimate  to  do  so  ? 
I  think  not.  That  the  practice  of  flattening  the 
head  of  infants  was  a  custom  once  as  rife  and 
common  in  Peru  as  it  is  in  many  other  parts  of 
both  North  and  South  America  at  the  present 
day,  is  well  known.  Then  why  not  account  for 
the  ancient  flattening  thus?  I  hold  that  the 
writers  who  hesitate  to  do  this  should  undertake 


118  PERUVIANS. 

the  difficult  task  of  proving  a  negative  :  other 
wise  they  multiply  causes  unnecessarily. 

Two  stocks  of  vast  magnitude  take  up  so 
large  a  proportion  of  South  America,  that  though 
they  are  not  in  immediate  geographical  contact 
with  the  Peruvians,  they  require  to  be  mentioned 
next  in  order  here.  They  are  mentioned  now  in 
order  to  enable  us  to  treat  of  other  and  smaller 
families.  These  two  great  stocks  are  the  Guarani 
and  the  Carib  ;  whilst  the  classes  immediately 
under  notice  are — 

The  remaining  South  Americans  who  are 
neither  Carib  nor  Guarani. — This  division  is  ar 
tificial,  being  based  upon  a  negative  character  ; 
and  it  is  geographical  rather  than  ethnological. 
The  first  branch  of  it  is  that  which  D'Orbigny 
calls  Antisian,  and  which  he  connects  at  once 
with  the  Peruvians  Proper ;  both  being  mem 
bers  of  that  primary  division  to  which  he  refer 
red  the  Araucanians — the  Araucanians  being 
the  third  branch  of  the  ^.^^o-Peruvians  ;  the 
two  others  being  the — 

a.  Peruvian  branch. — Color  deep  olive- 
brown  ;  form  massive  ;  trunk  long  in  proportion 
to  the  limbs  ;  forehead  retreating  ;  nose  aquiline ; 
mouth  large  ;  physiognomy  sombre  : — Aymara 
and  Quichua  Peruvians. 

1).  Antisian  branch. — Color  varying  Jfrom  a 
deep  olive  to  nearly  white  ;  form  not  massive  ; 


ANTISIANS,   ETC.  119 

forehead  not  retreating ;  physiognomy  lively, 
mild  : — Yuracares,  Mocetgnes,  Tacanas,  Maro- 
pas,  and  Apolistas. 

The  Yuracares,  Mocetenes,  Tacanas,  Maro- 
pas,  and  Apolistas,  are  Antisian ;  and  their 
locality  is  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Andes,*  be 
tween  15°  and  18°  S.  lat.  Here  they  dwell  in  a 
thickly  wooded  country,  full  of  mountain  streams, 
and  their  corresponding  valleys.  One  portion 
of  them  at  least  is  so  much  lighter-skinned  than 
the  Peruvians,  as  to  have  taken  its  name  from 
its  color — Yuralc-kare=white  man. 

To  the  west  of  the  Antisians  lie  the  Indians 
of  the  Missions  of  Chiquito  and  Moxos,  so  called 
because  they  have  been  settled  and  Christian 
ized.  The  physical  characters  of  these  also  are 
D'Orbigny's.  The  division,  however,  he  places 
in  the  same  group  with  the  Patagonians. 

a.  Chiquito  branch. — Color  light  olive  ; 
form  moderately  robust ;  mouth  moderate  ;  lips 
thin  ;  features  delicate  ;  physiognomy  lively  : — • 
Indians  of  the  Mission  of  Chiquitos. 

1).  Moxos  branch. — Form  robust ;  lips  thick- 
ish ;  eyes  not  brides ;  physiognomy  mild  : — In 
dians  of  the  Mission  of  Moxos. 

And  now  we  are  on  the  great  water-system 
of  the  Amazons  ;  with  the  united  effects  of  heat 
and  moisture.  They  are  not  the  same  as  in 
Africa.  There  are  no  negroes  here.  The  skin 

*  D'Orbigny,  Homme  Am£ricain. 


120  INDIANS    OF   THE    AMAZONS. 

is  in  some  cases  yellow  rather  than  brown  ;  in 
some  it  has  a  red  tinge.  The  stature,  too,  is  low ; 
not  like  that  of  the  negro,  tall  and  bulky.  It  is 
evident  that  heat  is  not  everything  ;  and  that  it 
may  have  an  inter-tropical  amount  of  intensity 
without  necessarily  affecting  the  color  beyond  a 
certain  degree.  As  to  differences  between  the 
physical  conditions  of  Brazil  and  Guiana  on  one 
side,  and  those  of  the  countries  we  have  been  con 
sidering  on  the  other,  they  are  important.  The 
condition  of  both  the  soil  and  climate  deter 
mines  to  agriculture.  This  gives  us  a  contrast 
to  the  Pampa  Indians  ;  whilst,  in  respect  to  the 
Peruvians,  there  is  no  longer  the  Andes  with  its 
concomitants  ;  no  longer  the  variety  of  climate 
within  the  same  latitude,  the  abundance  of  build 
ing  materials,  and  the  absence  of  rivers.  Boat 
men,  cultivators,  and  foresters — i.  e.  hunters  of 
the  wood  rather  than  of  the  open  praire — such 
are  the  families  in  question.  Into  groups  of 
small  classificational  value  they  divide  and  sub 
divide  indefinitely  more  than  the  few  investiga 
tors  have  suggested  ;  indeed,  D'Orbigny  throws 
them  all  into  one  class. 

The  tribes  of  the  Orinoco  form  the  last  sec 
tion  of  Indians,  which  are  neither  Guarani  nor 
Caribs ;  and  this  brief  notice  of  their  existence 
clears  the  ground  for  the  somewhat  fuller  account 
of  the  next  two  families. 

The  Guarani  alone  cover  more  land  than 


OF   THE   ORINOCO.  121 

all  the  other  tribes  between  the  Amazons,  the 
Andes,  and  the  La  Plata  put  together  ;  but  it  is 
not  certain  that  their  area  is  continuous.  In  the 
Bolivian  province  of  Santa  Cruz  de  la  Sierra, 
and  in  contact  with  the  Indians  of  the  Missions 
and  the  Chaco,  we  find  the  Chiriguanos  and 
Guarayos — and  these  are  Guarani.  Then  as  far 
north  as  the  equator,  and  as  far  as  the  river 
ISTapo  on  the  Peruvian  frontier,  we  find  the  flat- 
head  Omaguas,  the  fiuviatile  mariners  (so  to  say) 
of  the  Amazons  ;  and  these  are  Guarani  as  well. 

The  bulk,  however,  of  the  stock  is  Brazilian ; 
indeed,  Brazilian  and  Guarani  have  been  some 
times  used  as  synonyms.  There  are,  however, 
other  Guarani  in  Buenos  Ayres  ;  there  are  Gua 
rani  on  the  boundaries  of  Guiana ;  and  there  are 
Guarani  at  the  foot  of  the  Andes.  But  amidst 
the  great  sea  of  the  Guarani  populations,  frag 
ments  of  other  families  stand  out  like  islands  ; 
and  this  makes  it  likely  that  the  family  in  ques 
tion  has  been  aggressive  and  intrusive,  has  ef 
fected-  displacements,  and  has  superseded  a 
number  of  transitional  varieties. 

The  Caribs  approach,  without  equalling,  the 
Guarani,  in  the  magnitude  of  their  area.  This 
lies  mostly  in  Guiana  and  Venezuela.  The  chief 
population  of  Trinidad  is,  that  of  the  Antilles  was, 
Carib.  The  Caribs,  the  Inca  Peruvians,  the  Pam- 
pa  horsemen,  and  the  Fuegian  boatmen  repre- 


122  INDIANS    OF 

sent  the  four  extremes  of  the  South  American 
populations. 

In  some  of  the  Brazilian  tribes,  the  oblique 
eye  of  the  Chinese  and  Mongolians  occurs. 

In  order  to  show  the  extent  to  which  a  mul 
tiplicity  of  small  families  may  not  only  exist,  but 
exist  in  the  neighborhood  of  great  ethnolo 
gical  areas,  I  will  enumerate  those  tribes  of  the 
Missions,  Brazil,  Guiana,  and  Venezuela,  for 
which  vocabularies  have  been  examined,  and 
whereof  the  languages  are  believed,  either  from 
the  comparison  of  specimens,  or  on  the  strength 
of  direct  evidence,  to  be  mutually  unintelligible  ; 
premising  that  differences  are  more  likely  to  be 
exaggerated  than  undervalued,  and  that  the 
number  of  tribes  not  known  in  respect  to  their 
languages  is  probably  as  great  again  as  that  of 
the  known  ones. 

A.  Between  the  Andes,  the  Missions,  and 
the  15' and  17'  S.L.  come  the  Yurakares  ;  whose 
language  is  said  to  differ  from  that  of  the  Mo- 
cetenes,  Tacana,  and  Apolistas,  as  much  as  these 
differ  amongst  themselves. 

B.  In  the  Missions  come — 1.  The  Moxos. 
2.  Movima.  3.  The  Cayuvava.  4.  The 
Sapiboconi — these  belonging  to  Moxos.  In  Chi- 
quitos  are — 1.  The  Covareca.  2.  The  Curu- 
minaca.  3.  The  Curavi.  4.  The  Curucaneca. 
5.  The  Corabeca.  6.  The  Samucu. 


SOUTH    AMERICA.  123 

C.  In  Brazil,  the  tribes,  other  than  Guarani, 
of  which  I  have  seen  vocabularies  representing 
mutually  unintelligible  tongues,  are — 

1.  The  Botocudo,  fiercest  of  cannibals. 

2.  The  Goitaca,  known  to  the  Portuguese  as 
Coroados  or  Tonsured. 

3.  The  Camacan  with  several  dialects. 

4.  The  Kiriri  and  Sabuja. 

5.  The  Tirabira. 

6.  The  Pareci,  the  predominant  population 
of  the  Mata  Grosso. 

Y.  The  Mundrucu,  on  the  southern  bank  of 
the  Amazons,  between  the  rivers  Mauhe  and 
Tabajos. 

8.  The  Muni. 

9,  10,11.  The  Yam  eo,  Main  a,  and  Chimano, 
between  the  Madera  and  the  Ucayale. 

12.  The  Coretu,  the  only  one  out  of  forty 
tribes  known  to  us  by  a  vocabulary,  for  the 
parts  between  the  left  bank  of  the  Amazons  arid 
the  right  of  the  Bio  Negro. 

D.  Of  French,  Spanish,  and  Dutch  Guiana 
I  know   but  little.     Upon   British   Guiana   a 
bright  light  has  been  thrown  by  the  researches 
of  Sir  B.  Schomburgk.     Here,  besides  numer 
ous  well-marked  divisions  of  the  Carib  group, 
we  have — 

1.  The  Warows,  aboreal  boatmen — boatmen 
because  they  occupy  the  Delta  of  the  Orinoco, 


124:  INDIANS   OF 

and  the  low  coast  of  Northern  Guiana — and 
arboreal  because  the  floods  drive  them  up  into 
the  trees  for  a  lodging.  In  physical  form  the 
"Warows  are  like  their  neighbors  ;  but  their  lan 
guage  has  been  reduced  to  no  class,  and  their 
peculiar  habits  place  them  in  strong  contrast 
with  most  other  South  Americans.  They  are 
the  Marshmen  of  a  country  which  is  at  once  a 
delta  and  a  forest. 

2.  The  Taruma. 

3.  The  Wapisiana,  with  the  Aturai,  Dauri, 
and  Amaripas  as  extinct,  or  nearly  extinct,  sec 
tions  of  them — themselves  only  a  population  of 
four  hundred. 

E.  Venezuela  means  the  water-system  of 
Orinoco,  and  here  we  have  the  mutually  unin 
telligible  tongues  of — 

1.  The  Salivi)  of  which  the  Aturi  are  a  di 
vision — the  Aturi  known  from  Humboldt's  de 
scription  of  their  great  sepulchral  cavern  on  the 
cataracts  of  the  Orinoco ;  where  more  than  six 
hundred  bodies  were  preserved  in  woven  bags 
or  baskets — some  mummies,  some  skeletons, 
some  varnished  with  odoriferous  resins,  some 
painted  with  arnotto,  some  bleached  white, 
some  naked.  This  custom  re-appears  in  parts 
of  Guiana.  The  Salivi  have  undergone  great 
displacement;  since  there  is  good  reason  for 
believing  that  their  language  was  once  spoken 
in  Trinidad. 


THE    ORINOCO.  125 

2.  The  May  pur  es. 

3.  The  Achagua. 

4.  The  Yarura,  to  which  the  JBetoi  is  allied  ; 
and  possbly — 

The  Ottomaka. — These  are  the  dirt-eaters. 
They  fill  their  stomachs  with  an  unctuous  clay, 
found  in  their  country  ;  and  that,  whether  food 
of  a  better  sort  be  abundant  or  deficient. 

There  is  plenty  of  difference  here ;  still 
where  there  is  difference  in  some  points,  there  is 
so  often  agreement  in  others,  that  no  very  deci 
ded  difficulties  are  currently  recognized  as  lying 
against  the  doctrine  of  the  South  Americans 
being  specifically  connected.  When  such  oc 
cur,  they  are  generally  inferences  from  either 
the  superior  civilization  of  the  ancient  Peruvi 
ans,  or  from  the  peculiarity  of  their  skulls. 
The  latter  has  been  considered.  The  former 
seems  to  be  nothing  different  in  kind  from  that 
of  several  other  American  families — the  Muysca 
of  ISTew  Grenada,  the  Mexican,  and  the  Maya 
further  northwards.  But  this  may  prove  too 
much ;  since  it  may  merely  be  a  reason  for 
isolating  the  Mexicans,  &c.  Be  it  so.  The 
question  can  stand  over  for  the  present. 

Something  has  now  been  seen  of  two  classes 
of  phsenomena  which  will  appear  and  re-appear 
in  the  sequel — viz.  the  great  difference  in  the 
physical  conditions  of  such  areas  as  the  Fue- 


126  CENTRAL    AMERICA. 

gian,  the  Pampa,  the  Peruvian,  and  the  War- 
ows,  and  the  contrast  between  the  geographical 
extension  of  such  vast  groups  as  the  Guarani, 
and  small  families  like  the  Wapisiana,  the  Yu- 
rakares,  and  more  than  twenty  others. 

There  is  a  great  gap  between  South  and 
Central  America ;  nor  is  it  safe  to  say  that  the 
line  of  the  Andes  (or  the  Isthmus  of  Darien) 
gives  the  only  line  of  migration.  The  islands 
that  connect  Florida  and  the  Caraccas  must  be 
remembered  also. 

The  natives  of  New  Grenada  are  but  imper 
fectly  known.  In  Yeragua  a  few  small  tribes 
have  been  described.  In  Costa  Rica  there  are 
still  Indians — but  they  speak,  either  wholly  or 
generally,  Spanish.  The  same  is,  probably,  the" 
case  in  Nicaragua.  The  Moskito  Indians  are 
dashed  with  both  negro  and  white  blood,  and  are 
Anglicized  in  respect  to  their  civilization — such 
as  it  is.  Of  the  "West  Indian  Islanders  none 
remain  but  the  dark-colored  Caribs  of  St.  Yin- 
cents.  In  Guatimala,  Peruvianism  re-appears  ; 
and  architectural  remains  testify  an  industrial 
development — agriculture,  and  life  in  towns. 
The  intertropical  Andes  have  an  Art  of  their 
own ;  essentially  the  same  in  Mexico  and  Peru ; 
seen  to  the  best  advantage  in  those  two  coun 
tries,  yet  by  no  means  wanting  in  the  interme 
diate  districts  ;  remarkable  in  many  respects, 


CENTRAL    AMERICA.  127 

but  not  more  remarkable  than  the  existence  of 
three  climates  under  one  degree  of  latitude. 

Mexico,  like  Peru,  has  been  isolated — and 
that  on  the  same  principle.  Yet  the  ^Egyptians 
of  the  ~NQW  World  cannot  be  shown  to  have 
exclusively  belonged  to  any  one  branch  of  ita 
population.  In  Guatimala  and  Yucatan — 
where  the  ruins  are  not  inferior  to  those  of  the 
Astek*  country — the  language  is  the  Maya,  and 
it  is  as  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  the  Asteks 
built  these,  as  to  attribute  the  Astek  ruins  to 
Mayas.  It  is  an  illegitimate  assumption  to 
argue  that,  because  certain  buildings  were  con 
tained  within  the  empire  of  Montezuma,  they 
were  therefore  Astek  in  origin  or  design.  More 
than  twenty  other  nations  occupied  that  vast 
kingdom  ;  and  in  most  parts  of  it,  where  stone 
is  abundant,  we  find  architectural  remains. 

Architecture,  cities,  and  the  consolidation  of 
empire  which  they  determine,  keep  along  the 
line  of  the  Andes.  They  also  stand  in  an  evi 
dent  ratio  to  the  agricultural  conditions  of  the 
soil  and  climate.  The  Chaco  and  Pampa  hab 
its  which  stood  so  much  in  contrast  with  the 
industrial  civilization  of  Peru,  and  so  coincided 

*  Astek  means  tlie  Mexicans  of  the  Valley  of  Mexico  who 
spoke  the  Astek  language.  Mexican,  as  applied  to  the  kingdom 
conquered  by  Cortez,  is  a  political  rather  than  an  ethnological 
term. 


128  THE    NATCHEZ. 

with  the  open  prairie  character  of  the  country, 
re -appear  in  Texas.  They  increase  in  the  great 
valley  of  the  Mississippi.  Nevertheless  the  In 
dians  of  Florida,  the  Carolinas,  Tennessee,  Ken 
tucky,  Virginia,  and  the  old  forests  were  par 
tially  agricultural.  They  were  also  capable  of 
political  consolidation.  Powhattan,  in  Virginia, 
ruled  over  kings  and  sub-kings  even  as  Monte- 
zuma  did.  Picture-writing — so-called — of  which 
much  has  been  said  as  a  Mexican  characteristic, 
is  being  found  every  day  to  be  commoner  and 
commoner  amongst  the  Indians  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada. 

In  an  alluvial  soil  the  barrow  replaces  the 
pyramid.  The  vast  sepulchral  mounds  of  the 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi  are  the  subjects  of 
one  of  the  valuable  works*  of  the  present 
time. 

The  Natchez,  known  to  the  novelist  from  the 
romance  of  Chateaubriand,  are  known  to  the 
ethnologist  as  preeminent  amongst  the  Indians 
of  the  Mississippi  for  their  Mexican  character 
istics.  They  flattened  the  head,  worshipped 
the  sun,  kept  up  an  undying  fire,  recognized  a 
system  of  caste,  and  sacrificed  human  victims. 
Yet  to  identify  them  with  the  Asteks,to  assume 
even  any  extraordinary  intercourse,  would  be 
unsafe.  Their  traditions,  indeed,  suggest  the 

*  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,  vol.  i. 


THE   NATCHEZ.  129 

idea  of  a  migration ;  but  their  language  con 
tradicts  their  traditions.  They  are  simply  what 
the  other  natives  of  Florida  were.  I  see  in  the 
accounts  of  the  early  Appalachians  little  but 
Mexicans  and  Peruvians  minus  their  metals, 
and  gems,  and  mountains. 

The  other  generalities  of  North  America  are 
those  of  Brazil,  Peru,  and  Patagonia  repeated. 
The  Algonkins  have  an  era  like  the  Guarani, 
their  coast-line  only  extending  from  Labrador  to 
Cape  Hatteras.  The  Iroquois  of  New  York  and 
the  Carolinas — a  broken  and  discontinuous  pop 
ulation — indicate  encroachment  and  displace 
ment  ;  they  once,  however,  covered  perhaps  as 
much  space  as  the  Caribs.  The  Sioux  represent 
the  Chaco  and  Pampa  tribes.  Their  country  is 
a  hunting-ground,  with  its  relations  to  the  nor 
thern  Tropic  and  the  Arctic  Circle,  precisely 
those  of  the  Chaco  and  Pampas  to  the  Southern 
and  Antarctic. 

The  western  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  is 
more  Mexican  than  the  eastern ;  just  as  Chili  is 
more  Peruvian  than  Brazil. 

I  believe  that  if  the  Pacific  coast  of  America 
had  been  the  one  first  discovered  and  fullest  de 
scribed,  so  that  Russian  America,  New  Cale 
donia,  Queen  Charlotte's  Archipelago,  and  Nut- 
ka  Sound,  had  been  as  well  known  as  we  know 
Canada  and  New  Brunswick,  there  would  never 
7 


130  TRANSITION   FROM   THE    INDIAN 

have  been  any  doubts  or  difficulties  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  so-called  Red  Indians  of  the  New 
"World  ;  and  no  one  would  ever  have  speculated 
about  Africans  finding  their  way  to  Brazil,  or 
Polynesians  to  California.  The  common-sense 
prima  facie  view  would  have  been  admitted  at 
once,  instead  of  being  partially  refined  on  and 
partially  abandoned.  North-eastern  Asia  would 
have  passed  for  the  fatherland  to  North-western 
America ;  and  instead  of  Chinese  and  Japanese 
characteristics  creating  wonder  when  discovered 
in  Mexico  and  Peru,  the  only  wonder  would 
have  been  in  the  rarity  of  the  occurrence.  But 
geographical  discovery  came  from  another  quar 
ter,  and  as  it  was  the  Indians  of  the  Atlantic 
whose  history  first  served  as  food  for  speculation, 
the  most  natural  view  of  the  origin  of  the  Amer 
ican  population  was  the  last  to  be  adopted — 
perhaps  it  has  still  to  be  recognized. 

The  reason  for  all  this  lies  in  the  following 
fact.  The  Eskimo,  who  form  the  only  family 
common  to  the  Old  and  the  New  World,  stand 
in  a  remarkable  contrast  to  the  unequivocal  and 
admitted  American  aborigines  of  Labrador, 
Newfoundland,  Canada,  the  New  England  States, 
New  York,  and  the  other  well-knowTn  Indians  in 
general.  Size,  manners,  physical  conformation, 
and  language,  all  help  to  separate  the  two  stocks. 
But  this  contrast  extends  only  to  the  parts  east 


TO    THE    ESKIMO.  131 

of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  On  the  west  of  them 
there  is  no  such  abruptness,  no  such  definitude, 
no  such  trenchant  lines  of  demarcation.  The 
Athabascan  dialects  of  New  Caledonia  and  Rus 
sian  America  are  notably  interspersed  with  Eski 
mo  words,  and  vice  versad.  So  is  the  Koluch 
tongue  of  the  parts  about  ISTew  Archangel.  As 
for  a  remarkable  dialect  called  the  Ugalents  (or 
Ugyalyackhmutsi)  spoken  by  a  few  families 
about  Mount  St.  Elias,  it  is  truly  transitional  in 
character.  Besides  this,  what  applies  to  the 
language  applies  to  the  other  characteristics  as 
well. 

The  lines  of  separation  between  the  Eskimo 
and  the  non-Eskimo  Americans  are  as  faint  on 
the  Pacific,  as  they  are  strong  on  the  Atlantic 
side  of  the  continent. 

What  accounts  for  this  ?  The  Phenomenon 
is  by  no  means  rare.  The  Laplander  ^  strongly 
contrasted  with  the  Norwegian  on  the  west,  gra 
duates  into  the  Finlanderon  the  east.  The  rela 
tion  of  the  Hottentot  to  the  Kaffre  has  been 
already  noticed.  So  has  the  hypothesis  that  ex. 
plains  it.  One  stock  has  encroached  upon 
another,  and  the  transitional  forms  have  been 
displaced.  In  the  particular  case  before  us,  the 
.encroaching  tribes  of  the  Algonkin  class  have 
pressed  upon  the  Eskimo  from  the  south  ;  and 
just  as  the  present  Norwegians  and  Swedes 


132  THE   NORTH-WESTERN   INDIANS. 

now  occupy  the  country  of  a  family  which  was 
originally  akin  to  the  Laps  of  Lapland  (but  with 
more  southern  characters),  the  Micmacs  and 
other  Red  Men  have  superseded  the  southerly 
and  transitional  Eskimo.  Meanwhile,  in  North- 
western  America  no  such  displacement  has  taken 
place.  The  families  still  stand  in  situ  •  and  the 
phenomena  of  transition  have  escaped  oblitera 
tion. 

Just  as  the  Eskimo  graduate  in  the  Ameri 
can  Indian,  so  do  they  pass  into  the  populations 
of  North-eastern  Asia — language  being  the  in 
strument  which  the  present  writer  has  more 
especially  employed  in  their  affiliation.  From 
the  Peninsula  of  Aliaska  to  the  Aleutian  chain 
of  islands,  and  from  the  Aleutian  chain  to  Kam- 
skatka  is  the  probable  course  of  the  migration 
from  Asia  to  America — traced  backwards,  i.  e. 
from  the  goal  to  the  starting-point,  from  the  cir 
cumference  to  the  centre. 

Then  come  two  conflicting  lines.  The  Aleu 
tians  may  have  been  either  Kamskadales  or 
Curile  Islanders.  In  either  language  there  is  a 
sufficiency  of  vocables  to  justify  either  notion. 
But  this  is  a  mere  point  of  minute  ethnology 
when  compared  with  the  broader  one  which  has 
just  preceded  it.  The  Japanese  and  Corean 
populations  are  so  truly  of  the  same  class  with 
the  Curile  islanders,  and  the  Koriaks  to  the 


THE   TASMANIAKS,  133 

north  of  the  sea  of  the  Okhotsk  are  so  truly  Kam- 
skadale,  that  we  may  now  consider  ourselves  as 
having  approached  our  conventional  centre  so 
closely  as  to  be  at  liberty  to  leave  the  parts  in 
question  for  the  consideration  of  another  portion 
of  the  circumference — another  extreme  point  of 
divergence. 

II.  From  Van  Diemerfs  Land  to  the  South- 
Eastern  parts  of  Asia. — The  aborigines  of  Yan 
Diemen's  Land,  conveniently  called  Tasmanians, 
have  a  fair  claim,  when  considered  by  them 
selves,  to  be  looked  upon  as  members  of  a  sep 
arate  species.  The  Australians  are  on  a  level 
low  enough  to  satisfy  the  most  exaggerated 
painters  of  a  state  of  nature  /  but  the  Tasman 
ians  are,  apparently,  lower  still.  Of  this  family 
but  a  few  families  remain — occupants  of  Flin 
ders'  Island,  whither  they  have  been  removed 
by  the  Yan  Diemen's  Land  Government.  And 
here  they  decrease  ;  but  whether  from  want  of 
room  or  from  intermarriage  is  doubtful.  The 
effects  of  neither  have  been  fairly  investigated. 
From  the  Australians  they  differ  in  the  texture 
of  their  hair — the  leading  diagnostic  character. 
The  Tasmanian  is  shock-headed,  with  curled, 
frizzy,  matted  and  greased  locks.  None  of  their 
dialects  are  intelligible  to  any  Australian,  and 
the  commercial  intercourse  between  the  two 
islands  seems  to  have  been  little  or  none.  Short 


134:  TASMANIANS 

specimens  of  four  mutually  unintelligible  dia 
lects  are  all  that  I  have  had  the  opportunity  of 
comparing.  They  belong  to  the  same  class  with 
those  of  Australia,  New  Guinea,  and  the  Papua 
islands ;  and  this  is  all  that  can  safely  be  said 
about  them. 

It  is  an  open  question  whether  the  Tasman- 
ians  reached  Yan  Diemen's  Land  from  South 
Australia,  from  Timor,  or  from  New  Caledonia 
— the  line  of  migration  having,  in  this  latter 
case,  wound  round  Australia,  instead  of  stretch 
ing  across  it.  Certain  points  of  resemblance 
between  the  New  Caledonian  and  Tasinanian 
dialects  suggest  this  refinement  upon  tbeprimd 
facie  doctrine  of  an  Australian  origin  ;  and  the 
texture  of  the  hair,  as  far  as  it  proves  anything, 
goes  the  same  way. 

Australia  is  radically  and  fundamentally  the 
occupancy  of  a  single  stock  :  the  greatest  sign  of 
difference  between  its  numerous  tribes  being  that 
of  language.  Now  this  is  but  a  repetition  of  the 
philological  phenomena  of  America.  The  black 
er  and  ruder  population  of  Timor  represents  the 
great-great  ancestors  of  the  Australians  ;  and  it 
was  from  Timor  that  Australia  was,  apparently, 
peopled.  I  feel  but  little  doubt  on  the  subject. 
Timor  itself  is  connected  with  the  Malayan  pe 
ninsula  by  a  line  of  dark-colored,  rude,  and  frag 
mentary  populations,  to  be  found  in  Ombay  and 


AND   AUSTRALIANS.  135 

Floris  at  the  present  moment,  and  inferred  to 
have  existed  in  Java  and  Sumatra  before  the 
development  of  the  peculiar  and  encroaching 
civilization  of  the  Mahometan  Malays. 

It  is  in  the  Malayan  peninsula  that  another 
line  of  migration  terminates.  From  New  Cale 
donia  to  New  Guinea,  a  long  line  of  islands — 
Tanna,  Mallicollo,  Solomon's  Isles,  &c. — is  occu 
pied  by  a  dark-skinned  population  of  rude  Pa- 
puas,  with  Tasmanian  rather  than  Australian 
hair ;  i.  <?.with  hair  which  is  frizzy,  crisp,  curled, 
or  mop-headed,  rather  than  straight,  lank,  or 
only  wavy.  This  comes  from  New  Guinea; 
New  Guinea  itself  comes  from  the  Eastern  Mo 
luccas  ;  i.  e.  from  their  darker  populations. 
These  are  of  the  same  origin  with  those  of  Timor ; 
though  the  lines  of  migration  are  remarkably 
distinct.  One  is  from  the  Moluccas  to  New  Ca 
ledonia  via  New  Guinea ;  the  other  is  via  Timor 
to  Australia. 

Both  these  migrations  were  early,  earlier 
than  the  occupancy  of  Polynesia.  The  previous 
occupancy  of  Australia  and  New  Guinea  proves 
this  ;  and  the  greater  differences  between  the 
different  sections  of  the  two  populations  do  the 
same. 

III.  From  Easter  Island  to  the  South-Eas^ 
ern  parts  of  Asia. — The  northern,  southern,  and 
eastern  extremities  of  Polynesia  are  the  Sand. 


136  POLYNESIAN   GKOUP. 

wich  Islands,  New  Zealand,  and  Easter  Island, 
respectively.  These  took  their  occupants  from 
different  islands  of  the  great  group  to  which 
they  belong ;  of  which  the  Navigators'  Islands 
were,  probably,  the  first  to  be  peopled.  The 
Radack,  Ralik,  Caroline,  and  Pelew  groups  con 
nect  this  group  with  either  the  Philippines  or 
the  Moluccas ;  and  when  we  reach  these,  we  ar 
rive  at  the  point  where  the  Papuan  and  Polyne 
sian  lines  diverge.  Just  as  the  Papuan  line 
overlapped  or  wound  round  Australia,  so  do  the 
Micronesians  and  Polynesians  form  a  circuit 
round  the  whole  Papuan  area. 

As  the  languages,  both  of  Polynesia  and 
Micronesia,  differ  from  each  other  far  less  than 
those  of  New  Guinea,  the  Papuan  Islands,  and 
Australia,  the  separation  from  the  parent  stock 
is  later.  It  is,  most  probably,  through  the  Phil 
ippines  that  this  third  line  converges  towards 
the  original  and  continental  source  of  all  three. 
This  is  the  south-eastern  portion  of  the  Asiatic 
Continent,  or  the  Indo-Chinese  Peninsula. 

The  Malay  of  the  Malayan  Peninsula  is  an 
inflected  tongue,  as  opposed  to  the  Siamese  of 
Siam,  which  belongs  to  the  same  class  as  the 
Chinese,  and  is  monosyllabic.  This  gives  us  a 
Convenient  point  to  stop  at. 

In  like  manner  the  Corean  and  Japanese 
tongues,  with  which  we  broke  off  the  American 


THE   MALAGASI.  137 

lino  of  migration,  were  polysyllabic  ;  though  the 
Chinese,  with  which  they  came  in  geographical 
contact,  was  monosyllabic. 

The  most  remarkable  fact  connected  with  the 
Oceanic  stock  is  the  presence  of  a  certain  num 
ber  of  Malay  and  Polynesian  words  in  the  lan 
guage  of  an  island  so  distant  as  Madagascar ;  an 
island  not  only  distant  from  the  Malayan  Pe 
ninsula,  but  near  to  the  Mozambique  coast  of 
Africa,  an  ethnological  area  widely  different 
from  the  Malay. 

Whatever  may  be  the  inference  from  this 
fact — and  it  is  one  upon  which  many  very  con 
flicting  opinions  have  been  founded — its  reality 
is  undoubted.  It  is  admitted  by  Mr.  Crawfurd, 
the  writer  above  all  others  who  is  indisposed  to 
admit  the  Oceanic  origin  of  the  Malagasi,  and 
and  it  is  accounted  for  as  follows :  "A  naviga 
tion  of  3000  miles  of  open  sea  lies  between 
them,*  and  a  strong  trade- wind  prevails  in  the 
greater  part  of  it.  A  voyage  from  the  Indian  Is 
lands  to  Madagascar  is  possible,  even  in  the  rude 
state  of  Malayan  navigation ;  but  return  would 
be  wholly  impossible.  Commerce,  conquests,  or 
colonization,  are,  consequently,  utterly  out  of 
the  question,  as  means  of  conveying  any  portion 
of  the  Malayan  language  to  Madagascar.  There 
remains,  then,  but  one  way  in  which  this  could 

*  The  Indian  Islands  and  Madagascar. 


138  THE   MALAGASI   MIGRATION. 

have  taken  place — the  fortuitous  arrival  on  the 
shores  of  Madagascar  of  tempest-driven  Ma 
layan  JTTOIM.  The  south-east  monsoon,  which  is 
but  a  continuation  of  the  south-east  trade-wind, 
prevails  from  the  tenth  degree  of  south  latitude 
to  the  equator,  its  greatest  force  being  left  in  the 
Java  Sea,  and  its  influence  embracing  the  west 
ern  half  of  the  island  of  Sumatra.  This  wind 
blows  from  April  to  October,  and  an  easterly 
gale  during  this  period  might  drive  a  vessel  off 
the  shores  of  Sumatra  or  Java,  so  as  to  make  it 
impossible  to  regain  them.  In  such  a  situation 
she  would  have  no  resource  but  putting  before 
the  wind,  and  making  for  the  first  land  that 
chance  might  direct  her  to ;  and  that  first  land 
would  be  Madagascar.  With  a  fair  wind  and  a 
stiff  breeze,  which  she  would  be  sure  of,  she 
might  reach  that  island,  without  difficulty,  in 
a  month.  *  *  *  The  occasional  arrival 
in  Madagascar  of  a  shipwrecked  prau,  might 
not,  indeed,  be  su'licient  to  account  for  even  the 
small  portion  of  Malayan  found  in  the  Mala- 
gasi ;  but  it  was  offering  no  violence  to  the  man 
ners  or  history  of  the  Malay  people,  to  imagine 
the  probability  of  a  piratical  fleet,  or  a  fleet 
carrying  one  of  those  migrations,  of  which  there 
are  examples  on  record,  being  tempest-driven, 
like  a  single  prau.  Such  a  fleet,  well  equipped, 
well  stocked,  and  well  manned,  would  not  only 


THE   MALAGASI   MIGRATION.  139 

be  fitted  for  the  long  and  perilous  voyage,  but 
reach  Madagascar  in  a  better  condition  than  a 
fishing  or  trading  boat.  It  may  seem,  then, 
not  an  improbable  supposition,  that  it  was 
through  one  or  more  fortuitous  adventures  of 
this  description,  that  the  language  of  Madagas 
car  received  its  influx  of  Malayan." 

As  a  supplement  to  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Craw- 
furd,  I  add  the  following  account  from  Mr.  M. 
Martin :  "  Many  instances  have  occurred  of 
the  slaves  in  Mauritius  seizing  on  a  canoe,  or 
boat,  at  night-time,  and  with  a  calabash  of  water 
and  a  few  manioc,  or  Cassada  roots,  pushing  out 
to  sea,  and  endeavoring  to  reach  across  to  Mada 
gascar  or  Africa,  through  the  pathless  and 
stormy  ocean.  Of  course  they  generally  perish, 
but  some  succeed.  We  picked  up  a  frail  canoe 
within  about  a  hundred  miles  of  the  coast  of  Af 
rica  ;  it  contained  five  runaway  slaves,  one  dy 
ing  in  the  bottom  of  the  canoe,  and  the  others 
nearly  exhausted.  They  had  fled  from  a  harsh 
French  master  at  the  Seychelles,  committed 
themselves  to  the  deep  without  compass  or 
guide,  with  a  small  quantity  of  water  and  rice, 
and  trusting  to  their  fishing-lines  for  support. 
Steering  by  the  stars,  they  had  nearly  reached 
the  coast  from  which  they  had  been  kidnapped, 
when  nature  sank  exhausted,  and  we  were  just 
in  time  to  save  four  of  their  lives.  So  long  as 


140  THE   MALAGASI   MIGRATION. 

the  wanderers  in  search  of  home  were  able  to  do 
so,  the  days  were  numbered  by  notches  on  the 
side  of  the  canoe,  and  twenty-one  were  thus 
marked  when  met  with  by  our  vessel." 

These  extracts  have  been  given  for  the  sake 
of  throwing  light  upon  the  most  remarkable 
Oceanic  migration  known — for  migration  there 
must  have  been,  even  if  it  were  so  partial  as  Mr. 
Crawfurd  makes  it ;  migration  which  may  make 
the  present  Malagasi  Oceanic  or  not,  according 
to  the  state  in  which  they  found  the  island  at 
their  arrival.  If  it  were  already  peopled,  the 
passage  across  the  great  Indian  Ocean  is  just  as 
remarkable  as  if  it  were,  till  then,  untrodden  by 
a  human  foot.  The  only  additional  wonder  in 
this  latter  case  would  be  the  contrast  between 
the  Africans,  who  missed  an  island  so  near,  and 
the  Malays  who  discovered  one  so  distant. 

Individually,  I  differ  from  Mr  Crawfurd  in 
respect  to  the  actual  differences  between  the 
Malay  and  the  Malagasi,  with  the  hesitation  and 
respect  due  to  his  known  acquirements  in  the 
former  of  these  languages  ;  but  I  differ  more  and 
more  unhesitatingly  from  him  in  the  valuation 
of  them  as  signs  of  ethnological  separation ; 
believing,  not  only  that  the  two  languages  are 
essentially  of  the  same  family,  but  that  the  de 
scent,  blood,  or  pedigree  of  the  Malagasi  is  as 
Oceanic  as  their  language. 

IV.  From  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  the 


THE    HOTTENTOTS. 

South-western  parts  of  Asia. — The  Hottentots  of 
the  Cape  have  a  better  claim  than  any  other 
members  of  the  human  kind  to  be  considered  as 
a  separate  species.  Characteristics  apparently 
differential  occur  on  all  sides.  Morally,  the 
Hottentots  are  rude  ;  physically,  they  are  under 
sized  and  weak.  In  all  the  points  wherein  the 
Eskimo  differs  from  the  Algonkin,  or  the  Lap 
from  the  Fin,  the  Hottentot  recedes  from  the 
Kaffre.  Yet  the  Kaffre  is  his  nearest  neighbor. 
To  the  ordinary  distinctions,  steatomata  on  the 
nates  and  peculiarities  in  the  reproductive  organs 
have  been  superadded. 

Nevertheless,  a  very  scanty  collation  gives 
the  following  philological  similarities  ;  the  Hot 
tentot  dialects*  being  taken  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  other  African  languages!  on  the  other.  1 
leave  it  to  the  reader  to  pronounce  upon  the  im 
port  of  the  table ;  adding  only  the  decided  ex 
pression  of  my  own  belief  that  the  coincidences 
in  question  are  too  numerous  to  be  accidental, 
too  little  onomatopoeic  to  be  organic,  and  too 
widely  as  well  as  too  irregularly  distributed,  to 
be  explained  by  the  assumption  of  intercourse 
or  intermixture. 

*  Viz. :  the  Korana,  Saab,  Hottentot,  and  Bushman. 

t  The  Agow,  Somauli,  and  the  rest ;  some  being  spoken  very 
far  north,  as  the  Agow  and  Seracole.  This  list  has  already  been 
published  by  the  author  in  his  Report  on  Ethnological  Philology, 
(Transactions  of  the  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Sci 
ence,  1847). 


142 


THE    HOTTENTOTS. 


English 

sun.                                 English 

sleep. 

Saab 

Vkoara. 

Corana 

t'kchom. 

Hottentot 

sorre. 

Bushman 

Vkoing. 

Coraua 

soroh. 

Susu 

kima. 

Agovv 

quorah. 

Howssa 

kuana. 

Somauli 

ghurrah. 

Kru 

guiro. 

English 

fire. 

Kanga 

jiro. 

Corana 

tail. 

Wavvn 

jirri. 

Congo 

tubia. 

Somauli 

dub. 

English 

tongue. 

Bushman 

Vjih. 

Corana 

tamma. 

Fot 

dilt. 

Bushman 

Vinn. 

Ashantee 

ojia. 

Fertit 

timi. 

English 

neck. 

English 

neck. 

Bushman 

Vkau. 

Bushman 

Vkau. 

Makua 

tchico. 

Darfur 

kiu. 

English 

die. 

English 

hand. 

Corana 

Vkoo. 

Corana 

Vkoam. 

Bushman 

tkuki. 

Shilluck 

kiam. 

Makua 

ocoa^deai 

English 

tree. 

English 

good. 

Corana 

peikoa. 

Corana 

Vkain. 

Bushman 

Vhauki. 

Bushman 

tetcini. 

fehiiluck 

yuke. 

Makua 

oni-touny. 

English 
Corana 

mountain. 
teub. 

English 
Corana 

foot. 
Vnah. 

Falasha 

duba. 

Hottentot 

fnoah. 

Makua 

nyahai. 

English 
Corana 

ear. 
Vnaum. 

English 

drink. 

Bullom 

naimu. 

Corana 

Vkchaa. 

Howssa 

sha. 

English 
Corana 

star. 
kambrokoa. 

English 

star. 

Kossa 

rumba  eki. 

Bushman 

tkoaati. 

Baguon 

hoquuoud. 

English 

bird. 

Fulah 

kode. 

Bushman 
Mdiidingo 

Vkunni. 
kuno. 

English 
Corana 

child. 
Vkob. 

SOUTH    AFRICANS.  143 

Bushman  t'katkoang.  \       Seracol6,  &c.  He. 

Bagnon  coldcn. 

Timmani  kalent,  English  foot. 

Bullom  tsJiant.  Corana  Vkeib. 

Bushman  fkoah. 

English  tree.  Sereres  akiaf. 

Bushman  t'huh.  \       Waag  Agau.  tsab. 

Unless  we  suppose  Southern  Africa  to  have 
been  the  cradle  of  the  human  species,  the  popu 
lation  of  the  Cape  must  have  been  an  extension 
of  that  of  the  Southern  Tropic,  and  the  Tropical 
family  itself  have  been  originally  Equatorial. 
What  does  this  imply  ?  Even  this — that  those 
streams  of  population  upon  which  the  soil,  cli 
mate,  and  other  physical  influences  of  South 
Africa  acted,  had  themselves  been  acted  on  by 
the  inter-tropical  and  equatorial  influences  of  the 
JSTegro  countries.  Hence  the  human  stock  upon 
which  the  physical  conditions  had  to  act,  was  as 
peculiar  as  those  conditions  themselves.  It  was 
not  in  the  same  predicament  with  the  inter-trop 
ical  South  Americans.  Between  these  and  the 
hypothetical  centre,  in  Asia,  there  was  the  Arc 
tic  Circle  and  the  Polar  latitudes — influences 
that  in  some  portion  of  the  line  of  migration 
must  have  acted  on  their  ancestors'  ancestors. 

It  was  nearer  the  condition  of  the  Austra 
lians.  Yet  the  equatorial  portion  of  the  line  of 
migration  of  these  latter  have  been  very  differ 
ent  from  that  of  the  Kaffres  and  the  Hottentots. 
It  was  narrow  in  extent,  and  lay  in  fertilejslands, 


14:4:  THE   KAFFEES. 

cooled  by  the  breezes  and  evaporation  of  the 
ocean,  rather  than  across  the  arid  table-land  of 
Central  Africa — the  parts  between  the  Gulf  of 
Guinea  and  the  mouth  of  the  river  Juba. 

Between  the  Hottentots  and  their  next 
neighbors  to  the  north,  there  are  many  points  of 
difference.  Admitting  these  to  a  certain  extent, 
I  explain  them  by  the  assumption  of  encroach 
ment,  displacement,  and  the  abolition  of  those 
intermediate  and  transitional  tribes  which  con 
nected  the  northern  Hottentots  with  the  south 
ern  Kaffres. 

And  here  I  must  remark,  that  the  displace 
ment  itself  is  no  assumption  at  all,  but  an  his 
torical  fact ;  since  within  the  last  few  centuries 
the  Amakosa  Kaffres  alone  have  extended  them 
selves,  at  the  expense  of  different  Hottentot 
tribes,  from  the  parts  about  Port  Natal  to  the 
head-waters  of  the  Orange  River. 

It  is  only  the  transitional  character  of  the  an 
nihilated  populations  that  is  an  assumption.  I 
believe  it,  of  course,  to  be  a  legitimate  one ; 
otherwise  it  wxmld  not  have  been  made. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  consider  it  illegitimate 
to  assume,  without  inquiry,  so  broad  and  funda 
mental  a  distinction  between  the  two  stocks,  as 
to  attribute  all  points  of  similarity  to  intercourse 
only — none  to  original  affinity.  Yet  this  is  done 
largely.  The  Hottentot  language  contains  a 


THE    KAFFRES.  145 

sound  which  I  believe  to  be  an  m-aspirated  7i  •  i. 
0.,  a  sound  of  h  formed  by  drawing  in  the 
breath,  rather  than  by  forcing  it  out,  as  is  done 
by  the  rest  of  the  world.  This  is  called  the  dick. 
It  is  a  truly  inarticulate  sound  ;  and  as  the  com 
mon  h  is  found  in  the  language  as  well,  the 
Hottentot  speech  presents  the  remarkable  phe 
nomenon  of  two  inarticulate  sounds,  or  two 
sounds  common  to  man  and  the  lower  animals. 
As  a  point  of  anthropology,  this  may  be  of 
value ;  in  ethnology  it  has  probably  been  mis 
interpreted. 

It  is  found  in  one  Kaffre  dialect.  What  are 
the  inferences  ?  That  it  has  been  adopted  from 
the  Hottentot  by  the  Kaffre  ;  just  as  a  Kaffre 
gun  has  been  adopted  from  the  Europeans. 
This  is  one  of  them. 

The  other  is  that  the  sound  in  question  is  less 
unique,  less  characteristic,  and  less  exclusively 
Hottentot  than  was  previously  believed. 

JSTow  this  is  certainly  not  one  whit  less  legiti 
mate  than  the  former;  yet  the  former  is  the 
commoner  notion.  Perhaps  it  is  because  it 
flatters  us  with  a  fresh  fact,  instead  of  chastening 
us  by  the  correction  of  an  over-hasty  generali 
zation. 

Again :  the  root  t-Jc  (as  in  tixo,  tixme,  utiJco) 
is  at  once  Hottentot  and  Kaffre.  It  means  either 
a  Deity,  or  an  epithet  appropriate  to  a  Deity. 


14:6  THE    KAFFKES. 

Surely  the  doctrine  that  the  Kaffres  have  simply 
borrowed  parts  of  their  theological  vocabulary 
from  the  Hottentots,  is  neither  the  only  nor  the 
most  logical  inference  here. 

The  Kaffre  area  is  so  large  that  it  extends  on 
both  sides  of  Africa  to  the  equator ;  and  the 
contrast  which  it  supplies  when  compared  with 
the  small  one  of  the  Hottentots,  is  a  repetition 
of  the  contrasts  already  noticed  in  America. 

The  peculiarities  of  the  Kaffre  stock  are  fully 
sufficient  to  justify  care  and  consideration, 
before  we  place  them  in  the  same  class  either 
with  the  true  Negroes,  or  with  the  Gallas,  Nu 
bians,  Agows,  and  other  Africans  of  the  water- 
system  of  the  Nile.  Yet  they  are  by  no  means 
of  that  broad  and  trenchant  kind  which  many 
have  fancied  them.  The  undoubted  Kaffre  char 
acter  of  the  languages  of  Angola,  Loango,  the 
Gaboon,  the  Mozambique,  and  Zanzibar  coasts, 
is  a  fact  which  must  run  through  all  our  criti 
cism.  If  so,  it  condemns  all  those  extreme  in 
ferences  which  are  drawn  from  the  equally  un 
doubted  peculiarities  of  the  Kaffres  of  the  Cape. 
And  why  ?  Because  these  last  are  extreme 
forms  ;  extreme,  rather  than  either  typical  or — 
what  is  more  important — transitional. 

Let  us,  however,  look  to  them.  What  find 
we  then?  Until  the  philological  evidence  in 
favor  of  the  community  of  origin  of  the  inter- 


KAFFUE NEGROS.  147 

tropical  Africans  of  Congo  on  the  west,  and  of 
Inhambame,  Sofala,  the  Mozambique,  &c.,  on 
the  east,  was  known,  no  one  spoke  of  the  natives 
in  any  of  those  countries  as  being  any  thing  else 
but  Negro,  or  thought  of  enlarging  upon  such 
differences  as  are  now  found  between  them  and 
tho  typical  Black. 

Even  in  respect  to  the  languages,  there  are 
transitional  dialects  in  abundance.  In  Mrs.  Kil- 
ham's  tables  of  31  African  languages,  the  last  is 
a  Kongo  vocabulary,  all  the  rest  being  Negro. 
Now  this  Kongo  vocabulary,  which  is  truly 
Kaffre,  differs  from  the  rest  so  little  more  than 
the  rest  do  from  each  other,  that  when  I  first  saw 
the  list,  being  then  strongly  prepossessed  by  the 
opinion  that  the  Kaffre  stock  of  tongues  was,  to 
a  great  extent,  a  stock  per  se,  I  could  scarcely 
believe  that  the  true  Kongo  and  Kaffre  language 
was  represented  ;  so  I  satisfied  myself  that  it 
was  so,  by  a  collation  with  other  undoubted  vo 
cabularies,  before  I  admitted  the  inference. 
And  this  is  only  one  fact  out  of  many.* 

Again — the  Negroes  themselves  are  referable 
to  an  extreme  rather  than  a  normal  type ;  and 
so  far  are  they  from  being  co-extensive  with  the 
Africans,  that  it  is  almost  exclusively  along  the 
valleys  of  rivers  that  they  are  to  be  found.  There 

*  A  table  showing  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  Transactions  of 
the  British  Association  for  1847,  &c.,  p.  224—228. 


148  THE   NEGROS. 

are  none  in  the  extra-tropical  parts  of  Northern, 
none  in  the  corresponding  parts  of  Southern 
Africa  ;  and  but  few  on  the  table-lands  of  even 
the  two  sides  of  the  equator.  Their  areas,  in 
deed,  are  scanty  and  small  ;  one  lies  on  the  Up 
per  Nile,  one  on  the  Lower  Gambia  and  Sene 
gal,  one  on  the  Lower  Niger,  and  the  last  along 
the  western  coast,  where  the  smaller  rivers  that 
originate  in  the  Kong  Mountains  form  hot  and 
moist  alluvial  tracts. 

From  whatever  other  Africans  the  Negros 
are  to  be  separated,  they  are  not  to  be  discon 
nected  from  the  KafFres,  the  chief  points  of  con 
tact  and  transition  being  the  parts  about  the 
Gaboon. 

Neither  are  the  Ivaffres  to  be  too  trenchantly 
cut  off  from  the  remarkable  families  of  the  Sa 
hara,  the  range  of  Atlas,  and  the  coasts  of  the 
Mediterranean — families  which  it  is  convenient 
to  take  next  in  order ;  not  because  this  is  the 
sequence  which  most  closely  suits  either  their 
geography  or  their  ethnology,  but  because  the 
criticism  which  has  lately  been  applied  to  them 
best  helps  us  in  the  criticism  of  the  present  affi 
liations. 

On  the  confines  of  Egypt,  in  the  oasis  of  Si- 
wah,  we  find  the  most  eastern  members  of  the 
great  Berber,  Amazirgh,  or  Kabyle  family ;  and 
we  find  them  as  far  west  as  the  Canary  Isles,  of 


THE   BERBERS.  149 

which  they  were  the  occupants  as  long  as  a  na 
tive  population  occupied  them  at  all.  Members 
of  the  same  stock  were  the  ancient  subjects  of 
Jngurtha,  Syphax,  and  Masinissa.  Mr.  Francis 
Newman,  who  has  paid  more  attention  to  the 
speech  of  the  Berber  tribes  than  any  English 
man  (perhaps  than  any  European),  has  shown 
that  it  deserves  the  new  and  convenient  name 
of  $M&-Semitic — a  term  to  be  enlarged  on. 

Let  us  first  take  a  language  in  its  first  state 
of  inflexion,  when  passing  from  the  monosylla 
bic  form  of  the  Chinese  and  its  allied  tongues, 
it  just  begins  to  incorporate  with  its  hitherto 
unmodified  nouns  and  verbs,  certain  proposi 
tions  denoting  relation,  certain  adverbs  denot 
ing  time,  and  certain  pronouns  of  person  or 
possession  ;  by  means  of  all  which  it  gets  equi 
valents  to  the  cases,  tenses,  and  persons  of  the 
more  advanced  forms  of  speech. 

This  is  the  germ  of  Conjugation  and  De 
clension  ;  of  the  Accidents  of  Grammar.  Let 
us,  however,  go  farther.  Over  and  above  the 
simple  juxtaposition  and  incipient  incorpora 
tion  of  these  previously  separable  and  indepen 
dent  particles,  let  there  be  certain  internal  ones  ; 
those,  for  instance,  which  convert  the  English 
Present  Tenses  fall  and  speak  into  the  Prete 
rites  fell  and  spoke — or  something  of  the  same 
sort. 


150  SEMITIC    LANGUAGES. 

Farther  still.  Let  such  changes  of  accent  as 
occur  when  we  form  an  adjective  like  tyrannic 
al,  from  a  substantive  like  tyrant,  be  super- 
added. 

The  union  of  such  processes  as  these  will 
undoubtedly  stamp  a  remarkable  character  up 
on  the  language  in  which  they  appear. 

But  what  if  they  go  farther?  or  what  if, 
without  actually  going  farther,  the  tongues 
which  they  characterize  find  expositors  who  de 
light  in  giving  them  prominence,  and  also  ex 
aggerate  their  import  ?  This  is  no  hypothetical 
case. 

A  large  proportion  of  roots  almost  necessa 
rily  contain  three  consonants  ;  e.  g.,  bread,  stone, 
&c.,  pronounced  bred,  ston,  &c.  This  is  one 
fact. 

In  rcany  languages  there  is  an  inability  to 
pronounce  two  consonants  belonging  to  the  same 
syllable,  in  immediate  succession ;  an  inability 
which  is  met  by  the  insertion  of  an  intervening 
vowel.  The  Finlander,  instead  of  Jurist,  must 
say  either  Ekristo  or  Keristo.  This  principle  in 
English,  would  convert  bred  into  bered  or  ebrcd, 
and  ston  into  eston  or  seton.  This  is  another 
fact. 

These  two  and  the  preceding  ones  should 
now  be  combined.  A  large  proportion  of  roots 
containing  three  consonants  may  induce  a  gram- 


SEMITIC    LANGUAGES.  151 

marian  to  coin  such  a  term  as  triliteralism,  and 
to  say  that  this  triliteralism,  characterizes  a  cer 
tain  language. 

Then,  as  not  only  these  consonants  are  sepa 
rated  from  one  another  by  intervening  vowels, 
but  as  the  vowels  themselves  are  subject  to 
change,  (these  changes  acting  upon  the  accenta- 
tion,)  the  triliteralism  becomes  more  impoitant 
still.  The  consonants  look  like  the  framework 
or  skeleton  of  the  words,  the  vowels  being:  the 

o 

modifying  influences.  The  one  are  the  con 
stants,  the  other  the  variants  ;  and  triliteral 
roots  with  internal  modifications  becomes  a  phi 
lological  byword  which  is  supposed  to  represent 
a  unique  phenomenon  in  the  way  of  speech, 
rather  than  the  simple  result  of  two  or  three 
common  processes  united  in  one  and  the  same 
language. 

But  the  force  of  system  does  not  stop  here. 
Suppose  Ave  wished  to  establish  the  paradox 
that  the  English  was  a  language  of  the  sort  in 
question.  A  little  ingenuity  would  put  us  up 
to  some  clever  legerdemain.  The  convenient 
aspirate  h — like  the  bats  in  the  fable  of  the 
birds  and  beasts  at  war — might  be  a  consonant 
when  it  was  wanted  to  make  up  the  complement 
of  three,  and  a  vowel  when  it  was  de  trap. 
Words  like  pity  might  be  made  triliteral  (tri- 
consonantal)  by  doubling  the  tt  ;  words  like 


152  THR   SEMITIC   FAMILIES. 

pitted,  by  ejecting  it.  Lastly,  if  it  were  denied 
that  two  consonants  must  necessarily  be  separ 
ated  by  a  vowel,  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  to 
say  that  between  such  sounds  as  the  n  and  r  in 
Henry,  the  J  and  r  in  bread,  the  r  and  ~b  in  curb, 
there  was  really  a  very  short  vowel ;  and  that 
Henery,  ~blred,  curub,  were  the  true  sounds  ;  or 
that,  if  they  were  not  so  in  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury,  they  were  two  thousand  years  ago. 

E"ow  let  all  this  be  taught  and  believed,  and 
who  will  not  isolate  the  language  in  which  such 
remarkable  phenomena  occur  ? 

All  this  is  taught  and  believed,  and  conse 
quently  there  is  a  language,  or  rather  a  group 
of  languages,  thus  isolated. 

But  the  isolation  does  not  stop  with  the  phi 
lologist.  The  anatomist  and  the  historian  sup 
port  it  as  well.  The  nations  who  speak  the 
language  in  question  are  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Blacks,  but  without  being  Blacks  themselves ; 
and  they  are  in  contact  with  rude  Pagans ; 
themselves  being  eminently  monotheistic.  Their 
history  also  has  been  an  influential  one,  morally 
and  materially  as  well ;  whilst  the  skulls  are  as 
symmetrical  as  the  skull  of  the  famous  Geor 
gian  female  of  our  first  chapter,  their  complex 
ions  fair  or  ruddy,  and  their  noses  so  little  Afri 
can  as  to  emulate  the  eagle's  beak  in  prominent 
convexity.  All  this  exaggerates  the  elements 
of  isolation. 


THE    SEMITIC    FAMILIES.  153 

The  class  or  family  thus  isolated,  which — as 
stated  above — has  a  real  existence,  has  been 
conveniently  called  Semitic;  a  term  compris 
ing  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel  and  the  modern 
Jews  so  far  as  they  are  descended  from  them, 
the  Syrians  of  ancient,  and,  partially,  of  modern 
Syria,  the  Mesopotamians,  the  Phoenicians,  the 
Assyrians,  the  Babylonians,  the  Arabs,  and  cer 
tain  populations  of  JEthiopia  or  Abyssinia. 

Further  facts,  real  or  supposed,  have  con 
tributed  to  isolate  this  remarkable  and  impor 
tant  family.  The  Africans  who  were  nearest  to 
them,  both  in  locality  and  civilization — the 
^Egyptians  of  the  Pharaohnic  empire,  builders 
of  the  pyramids,  and  writers  in  hieroglyphics — 
have  ceased  to  exist  as  a  separate  substantive 
nation.  Their  Asiatic  frontagers,  on  the  other 
hand,  w^ere  either  Persians  or  Armenians. 

Everything  favored  isolation  here.  The 
Jew  and  ^Egyptian  were  in  strong  contrast,  from 
the  beginning,  and  all  our  earliest  impressions 
are  in  favor  of  an  over-valuation  of  their  differ 
ences.  As  for  the  Persian,  he  was  so  early 
placed  in  a  different  class — a  class  which,  from 
the  fact  of  its  being  supposed  to  contain  the 
Germans,  Greeks,  Latins,  Slavonians,  and  Hin* 
dus  as  well,  has  been  called  Indo-European — - 
that  he  had  a  proper  and  peculiar  position  of 
his  own  ;  and  something  almost  as  stringent  in 
8 


154:  THE   SEMITIC   FAMILIES. 

the  way  of  demarcation  applied  to  the  Arme 
nian.  Where,  then,  were  the  approaches  to  the 
Semitic  family  to  be  found  ? 

Attempts  were  made  to  connect  them  with 
the  Indo-Europeans  ;  I  think  unsuccessfully.  Of 
course  there  was  a  certain  amount  of  relation 
ship  of  some  kind ;  but  it  by  no  means  followed 
that  this  established  the  real  affiliations.  There 
was  a  connection ;  but  not  the  connection. 
The  reasons  for  this  view  lay  partly  in  certain 
undoubted  affinities  wTith  the  Persians,  and 
parthr  in  the  fact  of  the  Jew,  Syrian  and  Arab 
skulls,  and  the  Jew,  Syrian  and  Arab  civiliza 
tions  coming  under  the  category  of  Caucasian. 
Consciously  or  unconsciously,  most  writers 
have  gone  on  this  hypothesis — naturally,  but 
inconsiderately.  Hence  the  rough  current  opin 
ion  has  been,  that  if  the  Semitic  tribes  were  in 
any  traceable  degree  of  relationship  with  the 
other  families  of  the  earth,  that  relationship 
must  be  sought  for  amongst  the  Indo-Euro 
peans. 

The  next  step  was  to  raise  the  Semitic  class 
to  the  rank  of  a  standard  or  measure  for  the 
affinities  of  unplaced  families  ;  and  writers  who 
investigated  particular  languages  more  readily 
inquired  whether  such  languages  were  Semitic, 
than  what  the  Semitic  tongues  were  themselves. 
Unless  I  mistake  the  spirit  in  which  many  ad 


THE   SEMITIC    FAMILIES.  155 

mirable  investigations  have  been  conducted, 
this  led  to  the  term  /SW5-Semitic.  Men  asked 
about  the  amount  of  Semitism  in  certain  fami 
lies  as  if  it  were  a  substantive  and  inherent 
property,  rather  than  what  Semitism  itself  con 
sisted  in. 

And  now  $w5-Semitic  tongues  multiplied ; 
since  Sub-Semitism  was  a  respectable  thing  to 
predicate  of  the  object  of  one's  attention. 

The  ancient  ^Egyptian  was  stated  to  be  /Sub- 
Semitic — Benfey  and  others  having  done  good 
work  in  making  it  so. 

Mr.  Newman  did  the  same  with  the  Berber. 
Meanwhile  the  anatomist  acted  much  like  the 
philologist,  and  brought  the  skulls  of  the  old 
^Egptiaiis  in  the  same  class  with  those  of  the 
Jews  and  Arabs,  so  as  to  be  Caucasian. 

But  the  Caucasians  had  been  put  in  a  sort  of 
antithesis  to  the  Negros  ;  and  hence  came  mis 
chief.  Whatever  may  be  the  views  of  those 
able  writers  who  have  investigated  the  Sub-Se 
mitic  Africans,  when  pressed  for  definitions,  it 
is  not  too  much  to  say  that,  in  practice,  they 
have  all  acted  as  if  the  moment  a  class  became 
Semitic,  it  ceased  to  be  African.  They  have  all 
looked  one  way ;  that  being  the  way  in  which 
good  Jews  and  Mahometans  look — towards 
Mecca  and  Jerusalem.  They  have  forgotten 
the  phenomena  of  correlation.  If  Csesar  is  like 


156  THE    SEMITIC    FAMILIES. 

Pompey,  Pompey  must  be  like  Caesar.  If  Af 
rican  languages  approach  the  Hebrew,  the  He 
brew  mast  approach  them.  The  attraction  is 
mutual ;  and  it  is  by  no  means  a  case  of  Ma 
homet  and  the  mountain. 

I  believe  that  the  Semitic  element  of  the 
Berber,  the  Coptic  and  the  Gall  a  are  clear  and 
unequivocal ;  in  other  words,  that  these  langua 
ges  are  truly  Sub-Semitic. 

In  the  languages  of  Abyssinia,  the  Gheez 
and  Tigre,  admitted,  as  long  as  they  have  been 
known  at  all,  to  be  Semitic,  graduate  through 
the  Amharic,  the  Falasha,  the  Harargi,  the 
Gafat,  and  other  languages  which  may  be  well 
studied  in  Dr.  Beke's  valuable  comparative 
tables,*  into  the  Agow  tongue,  unequivocally 
indigenous  to  Abyssinia  ;  and  through  this  into 
the  true  Negro  classes. 

But  unequivocal  as  may  be  the  Semitic  ele 
ments  of  the  Berber,  Coptic  and  Galla,  their 
affinities  with  the  tongues  of  Western  and 
Southern  Africa  are  more  so.  I  weigh  my 
words  when  I  say,  not  equally,  but  more. 
Changing  the  expression  for  every  foot  in  ad 
vance  which  can  be  made  towards  the  Semitic 
tongues  in  one  direction,  the  African  philologist 

*  Transactions  of  the  Philological  Society,  No.  33. 


THE   SEMITIC    FAMILIES.  157 

can  go  a  yard  towards  the  Negro  ones  in  the 
other,  f 

Of  course,  the  proofs  of  all  this  in  full  detail 
would  fill  a  large  volume;  indeed,  the  exhaus 
tion  of  the  subject,  and  the  annihilation  of  all 
possible  and  contingent  objections  would  fill 
many.  The  position,  however,  of  the  present 
writer  is  not  so  much  that  of  the  engineer  who 
has  to  force  his  water  up  to  a  higher  uphill  by 
means  of  pumps,  as  it  is  that  of  the  digger  and 
delver  who  merely  clears  awray  artificial  em 
bankments  which  have  hitherto  prevented  it 
finding  its  own  level  according  to  the  common 
laws  of  nature.  He  has  little  fear  from  the  re 
sults  of  separate  and  independent  investigation, 
when  a  certain  amount  of  preconceived  notions 
have  been  unsettled. 

To  proceed  with  the  subject — the  conver 
gence  of  the  lines  of  migration  in  Africa  is 
broken  or  unbroken,  clear  or  indistinct,  continu 
ous  or  irregular,  to  much  the  same  extent,  and 

t  A  short  table  of  the  Berber  and  Coptic,  as  compared  with 
the  other  African  tongues,  may  be  seen  in  the  Classical  Museum, 
and  in  the  Transactions  of  the  British  Association,  for  1846. 
In  the  Transactions  of  the  Philological  Society  is  a  grammatical 
sketch  of  the  Tumali  language,  by  Dr.  L.  Tutshek  of  Munich. 
Now  the  Tumali  is  a  truly  Negro  language  of  Kordofan  ;  whilst 
in  respect  to  the  extent  to  which  its  inflections  are  formed  by 
internal  changes  of  vowels  and  accents,  it  is  fully  equal  to  the 
Semitic  tongues  of  Palestine  and  Arabia. 


158  THE   TERM   NEGRO. 

much  in  a  similar  manner,  with  those  of  Amer 
ica.  The  moral  contrasts  which  were  afforded 
by  the  Mexicans  and  Peruvians  reappear  in  the 
case  of  the  ^Egyptians  and  the  Semitidse.  As 
to  the  Hottentots,  they,  perhaps,  are  more 
widely  separated  from  their  next  of  kin  than 
any  Americans,  the  Eskimo  not  being  excepted  ; 
so  much  so,  that  if  the  phenomena  of  their  lan 
guage  be  either  denied  or  explained  away,  they 
may  pass  for  a  new  species. 

Now  if  the  reader  have  attended  to  the  dif 
ferences  between  the  Ethnological  and  the  An 
thropological  principles  of  classification,  he 
must  have  inferred  the  necessity  of  certain  dif 
ferences  of  nomenclature,  since  it  is  hardly 
likely  that  the  terms  which  suit  the  one  study 
will  exactly  fit  the  other.  And  such  is  really 
the  case.  If  the  word  Negro  mean  the  combi 
nation  of  woolly  hair,  with  a  jetty  skin,  de 
pressed  nose,  thick  lips,  narrow  forehead,  acute 
facial  angle,  and  prominent  jaw,  it  applies  to 
Africans  as  widely  different  from  each  other  as 
the  Laplander  is  from  the  Samoeid  and  Eskimo, 
or  the  Englishman  from  the  Finlander.  It  ap 
plies  to  the  inhabitants  of  certain  portions  of 
different  river-systems,  independent  of  relation 
ship — and  vice  versa.  The  Negros  of  Kordofan 
are  nearer  in  descent  to  the  Copts  and  Arabs 
than  are  the  lighter-colored  and  more  civilized 


TRANSITIONAL   TRIBES.  159 

Fulahs.  They  are  also  nearer  to  the  same  than 
they  are  to  the  Blacks  of  Senegambia.  If  this 
be  the  case,  the  term  has  no  place  in  Ethnology, 
except  so  far  as  its  extensive  use  makes  it  hard 
to  abandon.  Its  real  application  is  to  Anthro 
pology,  wherein  it  means  the  effects  of  certain 
influences  upon  certain  intertropical  Africans, 
irrespective  of  descent,  but  not  irrespective  of 
physical  condition.  As  truly  as  a  short  stature 
and  light  skin  coincide  with  the  occupancy  of 
mountain  ranges,  the  Negro  physiognomy  coin 
cides  with  that  of  the  alluvia  of  rivers.  Few 
writers  are  less  disposed  to  account  for  ethno 
logical  differences  by  reference  to  a  change  of 
physical  conditions  rather  than  original  distinc 
tion  of  species  than  Dr.  Daniell ;  nevertheless, 
he  expressly  states  that  when  you  leave  the  low 
swamps  of  the  Delta  of  the  Niger  for  the  sand 
stone  country  of  the  interior,  the  skin  becomes 
fairer,  and  black  becomes  brown,  and  brown 
yellow. 

Of  the  African  populations  most  immediately 
in  contact  with  the  typical  Negro  of  the  west 
ern  coast,  the  fairest  are  the  Nufi,  (conterminous 
with  the  Ibos  of  the  Lower  Niger),  and  the  Fu 
lahs  who  are  spread  over  the  highlands  of  Sene 
gambia,  as  far  in  the  interior  as  Sakatu,  and  as 
far  south  as  the  Nufi  frontier. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  darkest  of  the  fairer 


160  TRANSITIONAL   TRIBES. 

families  are  the  Tuaricks  of  "Wadreag,  who 
belong  to  the  Berber  family,  and  the  Sheyga 
Arabs  of  Nubia. 

The  Nubians  themselves,  or  the  natives  of 
the  Middle  Nile,  between  ^Egypt  and  Sennaar, 
are  truly  transitional  in  features  between  the 
^Egyptians  and  the  Blacks  of  Kordofan.  So 
they  are  in  language,  and  apparently  in  civiliza- 
tional  development. 

The  best  measure  of  capacity,  in  this  respect, 
on  the  part  of  those  Africans  who  have  been 
less  favored  by  external  circumstances  and  geo 
graphical  position  than  the  ancient  ^Egyptians, 
is  to  be  found  amongst  the  Mandingos  and  Fu- 
lahs,  each  of  which  nations  has  adopted  the 
Mahometan  religion,  and  some  portion  of  the 
Arabic  literature  along  with  it.  Of  large  towns 
there  are  more  in  Negro  Africa  than  there  has 
ever  been  in  Mongolia  and  Tartary.  Yet  the 
Tartars  are  neither  more  nor  less  than  Turks, 
like  those  of  Constantinople,  and  the  Mongoli 
ans  are  closely  connected  with  the  industrial 
Chinese. 

That  the  uniformity  of  languages  throughout 
Africa  is  greater  than  it  is  either  in  Asia  or 
Europe,  is  a  statement  to  which  I  have  not  the 
least  hesitation  in  committing  myself. 

And  now,  having  brought  the  African  mi 
gration — to  which  I  allot  the  Semitic  populations 


PKIMARY    MIGEATIONS.  161 

of  Arabia,  Syria,  and  Babylonia — from  its  ex 
tremity  at  the  Cape  to  a  point  so  near  the  hy 
pothetical  centre  as  the  frontiers  of  Persia  and 
Armenia,  I  leave  it  for  the  present. 

*###### 

The  English  of  England  are  not  the  earliest 
occupants  of  the  island.  Before  them  were  the 
ancient  Britons.  "Were  these  the  earliest  occu 
pants  ?  Who  were  the  men  by  whose  foot  Britain, 
till  then  the  home  of  the  lower  animals  alone, 
was  first  trodden?  This  is  uncertain.  "Why 
may  not  the  Kelts  have  stood  in  the  same  rela 
tion  to  some  rude  Britons  still  more  primitive, 
that  the  Anglo-Saxons  did  to  the  Kelts  ?  Per 
haps  th0y  really  did  so.  Perhaps,  even  the  rude 
and  primitive  tribes  thus  assumed  had  aborigi 
nes  who  looked  upon  them  as  intruders,  them 
selves  having  in  their  turn  been  interlopers. 
The  chief  objection  against  thus  multiplying 
aboriginal  aboriginies  is  the  rule  de  non  appa- 
rentibus,  &c. 

But  Britain  is  an  island.  Everything  rela 
ting  to  the  natural  history  of  the  useful  arts  is  so 
wholly  uninvestigated,  that  no  one  has  proposed 
even  to  approximate  the  date  of  the  first  launch 
of  the  first  boat ;  in  other  words,  of  the  first  oc 
cupancy  of  a  piece  of  land  surrounded  by  water. 
The  whole  of  that  particular  continent  in  which 
the  first  protoplasts  saw  light,  may  have  re- 


PRIMARY   MIGRATIONS. 

mained  full  to  overflowing,  before  a  single  frail 
raft  had  effected  the  first  human  migration. 

Britain  may  have  remained  a  solitude  for 
centuries  and  millenniums  after  Gaul  had  been 
full.  I  do  not  suppose  this  to  have  been  the 
case  ;  but,  unless  we  imagine  the  first  canoe  to 
have  been  built  simultaneously  with  the  demand 
for  water-transport,  it  is  as  easy  to  allow  that  a 
long  period  intervened  between  that  time  and 
the  first  effort  of  seamanship  as  a  short  one. 
Hence,  the  date  of  the  original  populations  of 
islands  is  not  in  the  same  category  with  that 
of  the  dispersion  of  men  and  women  over  con 
tinents. 

On  continents,  we  must  assume  the  extension 
from  one  point  to  another  to  have  been  contin 
uous — and  not  only  this,  but  we  may  assume 
something  like  an  equable  rate  of  diffusion  also. 
I  have  heard  that  the  American  population 
moves  bodily,  from  east  to  west,  at  the  rate  of 
about  eleven  miles  a  year. 

As  I  use  the  statement  solely  for  the  sake  of 
illustrating  my  subject,  its  accuracy  is  not  very 
important.  To  simplify  the  calculation,  let  us 
say  ten.  At  this  rate,  a  circle  of  migration  of 
which  the  centre  was  (say)  in  the  Altai  range, 
would  enlarge  its  diameter  at  the  rate  of  twenty 
miles  a  year ;  i.  e.,  ten  miles  at  one  end  of  the 
radius  and  ten  at  the  other. 


PRIMARY   MIGRATIONS.  163 

Hence,  a  point  a  thousand  miles  from  the 
birth-place  of  the  patriarchs  of  our  species  would 
receive  its  first  occupants  exactly  one  hundred 
years  after  the  original  locality  had  been  found 
too  limited.  At  this  rate  a  very  few  centuries 
would  people  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  fewer 
still  Lapland,  the  parts  about  Cape  Comorin,  the 
Malayan  Peninsula,  and  Kamskatka — all  parts 
more  or  less  in  the  condition  of  extreme  points.* 

Now,  as  long  as  any  continental  extremities 
of  the  earth's  surface  remain  unoccupied — the 
stream  (or  rather  the  enlarging  circle  of  migra 
tion)  not  having  yet  reached  them — \hz  primary 
migration  is  going  on  ;  and  when  all  have  got 
their  complement,  the  primary  migration  is 
over.  During  this  primary  migration,  the  rela 
tions  of  man,  thus  placed  in  movement,  and  in 

*  Nothing  is  said  about  Cape  Horn ;  as  America  in  relation 
to  Asia  is  an  island.  It  is  also,  perhaps,  unnecessary  to  repeat 
that  both  the  rate  and  the  centre  are  hypothetical — either  or  both 
may  or  may  not  be  correct.  That  which  is  not  hypothetical  is 
the  approximation  to  an  equability  of  rate  in  the  case  of  conti 
nents.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  any  such  conditions  as  those 
which  deferred  the  occupancy  of  islands  like  Madagascar  and 
Iceland,  by  emigrants  from  Africa  or  Greenland,  for  an  indefinite 
period,  keeping  one  part  of  Africa  or  Greenland  empty  whilst 
another  was  full.  Hence,  the  equality  in  question  is  a  mere  re 
sult  of  the  absence,  on  continents,  of  any  conditions  capable  of 
arresting  it  for  an  indefinite  period.  The  extent  to  which  it  may 
be  interfered  with  by  other  causes  is  no  part  of  the  present  ques 
tion. 


164:  SECONDARY   MIGRATIONS. 

the  full,  early  and  guiltless  exercise  of  his  high 
function  of  subduing  the  earth,  are  in  conflict 
with  physical  obstacles,  and  with  the  resistance 
of  the  lower  animals  only.  Unless — like  Lot's 
wife — he  turn  back  upon  the  peopled  parts  be 
hind  him,  he  has  no  relations  with  his  fellow- 
men — at  least  none  arising  out  of  the  claim  of 
previous  occupancy.  In  other  words — during 
the  primary  migration — the  world  that  lay  be 
fore  our  progenitors  was  either  brute  or  inani 
mate. 

But  before  many  generations  have  passed 
away,  all  becomes  full  to  overflowing ;  so  that 
men  must  enlarge  their  boundaries  at  the  ex 
pense  of  their  fellows.  The  migrations  that  now 
take  place  are  secondary.  They  differ  from  the 
primary  in  many  respects.  They  are  slower^ 
because  the  resistance  is  that  of  Humanity  to 
Humanity ;  and  they  are  violent,  because  dis 
possession  is  the  object.  They  are  partial,  abor 
tive,  followed  by  the  fusion  of  different  popula 
tions  ;  or  followed  by  their  extermination,  as  the 
case  may  be.  All,  however,  that  we  have  now 
to  say  about  them,  is  the  fact  of  their  difference 
from  the  primary  one. 

Concerning  the  secondary  migrations,  we 
have  a  considerable  amount  of  knowledge.  His 
tory  tells  us  of  some;  ethnological  induction 
suggests  others.  The  primary  one,  however,  is 


SECONDARY  MIGRATIONS.  165 

a  great  mystery.  Yet  it  is  one  which  is  contin 
ually  talked  about. 

I  mention  it  now  (having  previously  enlarged 
upon  it),  for  the  sake  of  suggesting  a  question 
of  some  importance  in  practical  Ethnology.  It 
is  the  one  suggested  by  the  remarks  upon  the 
aborigines  of  Britain.  When  are  we  sure  that 
the  population  of  any  part  of  a  continent  is  pri 
mary,  i.  e.,  descended  from,  or  representative  of 
the  first  occupants  ?  Never.  There  are  plenty 
of  cases  where,  from  history,  from  phenomena 
of  contrast,  and  from  other  ethnological  argu 
ments,  we  are  quite  satisfied  that  it  is  not  so ; 
but  none  where  the  evidence  is  conclusive  the 
other  way.  At  the  same  time,  the  doctrine  de 
non  apparentibus  cautions  us  against  assuming 
displacements  unnecessarily. 

However,  where  we  have,  in  addition  to  the 
abscence  of  the  signs  of  previous  occupancy,  an 
extreme  locallity,  (i.  «.,  a  locality  at  the  farthest 
distance,  in  a  given  direction,  from  the  hypo 
thetical  centre,)  we  have  prima  facie  evidence 
in  favor  of  the  population  representing  a  pri 
mary  migration.  Thus : 

1, 2.  The  Hottentots  and  Laplanders,  amongst 
the  families  of  the  Continent,  are  probably 
primary. 

3.  The  Irish  Gaels  are  the  same  amongst 
islanders. 


166  SECONDARY  MIGRATIONS. 

4,  5.  America  and  the  Oceanic  area  appear 
to  be  primary  in  respect  to  the  populations 
of  the  Continent  of  Asia ;  though  within  their 
own  areas  the  displacements  have  been  consid 
erable. 


THE   UGEIANS.  167" 


CHAPTEK  Y. 

The  Ugrians  of  Lapland,  Finland,  Permia,  the  Ural  Mountains 
and  the  Volga — area  of  the  light-haired  families — Turanians — 
the  Kelts  of  Ireland,  Scotland,  Wales,  Gaul — the  Goths — the 
Sarmatians — the  Greeks  and  Latins — difficulties  of  European 
ethnology — displacement — intermixture — identification  of  an 
cient  families — extinction  of  ancient  families — the  Etruscans 
— the  Pelasgi — isolation — the  Basks — the  Albanians — classi 
fications  and  hypotheses — the  term  Indo-European — the  Fin 
nic  hypotheses. 

Y.  from  Lapland  to  North-western  Asia. — 
That  the  Norwegian  of  Norway  stands  in  re 
markable  contrast  to  the  Lap  of  Finmark,  has 
already  been  stated.  There  is  nothing  wonder 
ful  in  this.  The  Norwegian  is  the  German  from 
the  south,  and,  consequently,  a  member  of  an 
intrusive  population. 

The  extent  to  which  a  similar  contrast  exists 
between  the  Lap  and  the  Finlander,  is  more  re 
markable,  since  both  belong  to  the  same  family. 
Of  this  family,  the  Laps  are  an  extreme  branch, 
both  in  respect  to  physical  conformation  and 
geographical  position.  The  term  most  conveni 
ently  used  to  designate  the  stock  in  question  is 
Ugrian.  In  Asia  the  Yoguls,  Ostiaks,  Yotiaks, 
Tsheremis,  Mordunis,  and  other  tribes  are 
Ugrian. 


168  THE   FAIR   FAMILIES. 

The  Laps  are,  generally  speaking,  swarthy 
in  complexion,  black-haired  and  black-eyed ; 
and  so  are  the  Majiars  of  Hungary.  The  other 
Ugrians,  however,  are  remarkable  for  being,  to  a 
great  extent,  a  blonde  population.  The  Tshuvatsh 
have  a  light  complexion  with  black  and  some 
what  curly  hair,  and  grey  eyes.  The  Morduins 
fall  into  two  divisions,  the  Ersad  and  Mokshad ; 
of  which  the  former  are  more  frequently  red- 
haired  than  the  latter.  The  Tsheremis  are  light- 
haired,  the  Yoguls  and  Ostiaks  often  red-haied, 
the  Yotiaks  the  most  red-haired  people  in  the 
world.  Of  course,  with  this  we  have  blue  or 
grey  eyes  and  fair  skins. 

Few  writers  seem  ever  to  have  considered  the 
exceptional  character  of  this  physiognomy;  in 
deed,  it  is  unfortunate  that  no  term  like  bianco 
(or  franco),  denoting  men  lighter  colored  than 
the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese,  in  the  same  way 
that  Negro  denotes  those  who  are  darker,  has 
been  evolved.  It  is,  probably,  too  late  for  it 
being  done  now.  At  any  rate,  complexions 
like  those  of  the  fair  portion  of  the  people  of 
England,  are  quite  as  exceptionable  as  faces  of 
the  hue  of  the  Gulf-of-Guinea  Blacks. 

Like  the  Negro,  the  White-skin  is  chiefly 
found  within  limits ;  and  like  Negro,  the  term 
White  is  anthropological  rather  than  ethnologi 
cal  ;  i.  e.y  the  physiognomy  in  question  is  spread 


THE   TUEANIANS.  169 

over  different  divisions  of  our  species,  and  by  no 
means  coincides  with  ethnological  relationship. 

Nine-tenths  of  the  fair-skinned  populations 
of  the  world  are  to  "be  found  between  30°  and 
65°  K  lat.,  and  west  of  the  Oby.  Nine-tenths 
of  them  also  are  to  be  found  amongst  the  follow 
ing  four  families  :  1.  The  Ugrian.  2.  The 
Sarmatian.  3.  The  Gothic.  4.  The  Keltic. 

The  physical  conditions  which  most  closely 
coincide  with  the  geographical  area  of  the  ~blonde 
branches  of  the  blonde  families  require  more 
study  than  they  have  found.  From  the  parts  to 
north  and  south,  it  is  distinguished  by  the  pal 
pably  intelligible  differences  of  latitude.  The 
parts  to  the  east  of  it  differ  less  evidently  ; 
nevertheless,  they  are  steppes  and  table-lands, 
rather  than  tracts  of  comparatively  low  forests. 
The  blonde  area  is  certainly  amongst  the  moister 
parts  of  the  world.* 

That  the  Ugrians  graduate  into  the  Turks  of 
Tartary  and  Siberia — themselves  a  division  of  a 
class  containing  the  great  Mongolian  and  Tungii- 
sian  branches — has  been  admitted  by  most  wri 
ters  ;  Schott  having  done  the  best  work  with  the 
philological  part  of  the  question. 

*  When  ethnological  medicine  shall  have  become  more  ex 
tensively  studied  than  it  is,  it  will  probably  be  seen  that  the 
populations  of  the  area  in  question  are  those  which  are  most 
afflicted  by  scrofula. 


170  THE   TURANIANS. 

Gabelentz  has,  I  am  informed,  lately  shown 
that  the  Samoeid  tongues  come  within  the  same 
class ;  a  statement  which,  without  having  seen 
his  reasons,  I  am  fully  prepared  to  admit. 

Now  what  applies  to  the  Samoeids*  applies 
to  two  other  classes  as  well : 

1.  The  Yeniseians*  on  the  Upper  Yenisey  ; 
and 

2.  The  Yukahiri*  on  the  Kolyma  and  Indi- 
jirka. 

This  gives  us  one  great  stock,  conveniently 
called  Turanian,  whereof — 

1.  The  Mongolians. 

2.  The  Tungusians — of  which  the  Mantshus 
are  the  best  known  representatives — 

3.  The  Ugrians,  falling  into  the  Lap,  Fin- 
landic,  Majiar  and  other  branches  ; — along  with 

4.  The   Hyperboreans,  or  Samoeids,  Yeni 
sei  ans,  and  Yukahiri — are  branches. 

And  this  stock  takes  us  from  the  North  Cape 
to  the  Wall  of  China. 

YI.  From  Ireland  to  the  Western  parts  of 
Asia. — The  rule  already  referred  to,  viz.,  that 
an  island  must  always  be  considered  to  have 
been  peopled  from  the  nearest  part  of  the  near 
est  land  of  a  more  continental  character  than 
itself,  unless  reason  can  be  shown  to  the  contra- 

*  A  table  showing  this  is  printed  in  the  author's  "  Varieties 
of  Man,"  pp.  270-272. 


THE   KELTS.  171 

ry,  applies  to  the  population  of  Ireland;  sub 
ject  to  which  view,  the  point  of  emigration  from 
Great  Britain  must  have  been  the  parts  about 
the  Mull  of  Cantyre;  and  the  point  of  immi 
gration  into  Ireland  must  have  been  the  prov 
ince  of  Ulster,  and  the  parts  that  are  nearest  to 
Scotland. 

Upon  this  doctrine  I  see  no  reason  whatever 
to  refine,  since  the  unequivocal  fact  of  the  Scotch 
and  Irish  Gaelic  being  the  same  language  con 
firms  it.  Here,  however,  as  in  so  many  other 
cases,  the  opinions  and  facts  by  no  means  go  to 
gether  ;  and  the  notion  of  Scotland  having  been 
peopled  from  Ireland,  and  Ireland  from  some 
other  country,  is  a  common  one.  The  introduc 
tion  of  the  Scots  of  Scotland  from  the  west,  when 
examined,  will  be  found  to  rest  almost  wholly 
on  the  following  extract  from  Beda :  "  proce- 
dente  tempore,  tertiam  Scottorum  nationem  in 
parte  Pictorum  recepit,  qui  duce  Reuda  de  Hi- 
bernia  progressi,  amicitia  vel  ferro  sibimet  inter 
eos  has  sedes  quas  hactenus  habent  vindicarunt ; 
a  quo  videlicet  duce,  usque  hodie  Dalreudini 
vocantur :  nam  eorum  lingua  Daal  partem  sig- 
nificat." 

Now,  as  this  was  written  about  the  middle  of 
the  eighth  century,  there  are  only  two  statements 
in  it  that  can  be  passed  for  contemporary  evidence ; 
viz.,  the  assertion  that  at  the  time  of  Beda  a  por- 


172  THE   KELTS. 

tion  of  Scotland  was  called  the  country  of  the  Dal- 
reudini  •  and  that  in  their  language  daal  meant 
part.  The  Irish  origin,  then,  is  grounded  upon 
either  an  inference  or  a  tradition;  an  inference 
or  a  tradition  which,  if  true,  would  prove  noth 
ing  as  to  the  original  population  of  either  coun 
try  ;  since,  the  reasoning  which  applies  to  the 
relation  between  the  peninsula  of  Malacca  and 
the  island  of  Sumatra  applies  here.  There,  the 
population  first  passed  from  the  peninsula  to  the 
island,  and  then  back  again — reflected  so  to  say 
— from  the  island  to  the  peninsula.  Mutatis 
mutandis  this  was  the  case  with  Scotland  and 
Ireland,  provided  that  there  was  any  migration 
at  all. 

Upon  this  point  the  evidence  of  Beda  may 
or  may  not  be  sufficient  for  the  historian.  It  is 
certainly  unsatisfactory  to  the  ethnologist. 

In  saying  this,  I  by  no  means  make  the  dis 
paraging  insinuation  that  the  historian  is  un 
duly  credulous,  or  that  the  ethnologist  is  a 
model  of  caution.  Neither  assertion  would  be 
true.  The  ethnologist,  however,  like  a  small 
capitalist,  cannot  afford  so  much  credit  as  his 
fellow-laborer  in  the  field  of  Man.  He  is  like 
a  traveller,  who,  leaving  home  at  the  twilight 
of  the  evening,  must  be  doubly  cautious  when 
he  comes  to  a  place  where  two  roads  meet.  If 
lie  take  the  wrong  one,  he  has  nothing  but  the 


THE   GOTHS.  173 

long  night  before  him;  and  his  error  grows 
from  bad  to  worse.  But  the  historian  starts 
with  the  twilight  of  the  dawn ;  so  that  the  fur 
ther  he  goes  the  clearer  he  finds  his  way,  and 
the  easier  he  rectifies  any  previous  false  turn 
ings.  To  argue  from  cause  to  effect  is  to  jour 
ney  in  the  dim  light  of  the  early  morn  till  we 
reach  the  blazing  noon.  To  argue  from  effect  to 
cause  is  to  change  the  shades  of  evening  for  the 
gloom  of  night. 

As  Scotland  is  to  Ireland,  so  is  Gaul  to  Eng 
land.  From  the  Shannon  to  the  Loire  and 
Khine,  the  stock  is  one ;  one,  but  not  indivisi 
ble — the  British  branch  [containing  the  Welsh] 
and  the  Gaelic  [containing  the  Scotch]  forming 
its  two  primary  sections. 

Next  to  the  Kelts  came  the  Goths ;  the  term 
Gothic  being  a  general  designation  taken  from 
a  particular  people.  Germany  is  the  native 
land  of  these ;  just  as  Gaul  was  of  the  Kelts. 
Hence,  they  lie  to  the  north  of  that  family,  as 
well  as  to  the  west  of  it.  Intrusive  above  all 
the  other  populations  of  the  earth,  the  branches 
of  the  Gothic  tribes  have  brought  themselves  in 
contact  and  collision  with  half  the  families  of 
the  world.  First,  they  encroached  upon  the 
Kelts,  and,  for  a  time,  the  tide  of  conquest  fluc 
tuated.  It  was  the  Rhine  which  was  the  dis 
puted  frontier — disputed  as  much  in  Caesar's 


174  THE   SARMATIANS. 

time  as  our  own.  Next  they  revenged  them 
selves  on  the  aggressions  of  Rome ;  so  that  the 
Ostro-goths  conquered  Italy,  and  the  Visi-goths 
Spain.  Then  came  the  Franks  of  France,  and 
the  Anglo-Saxons  of  England.  In  the  ninth 
and  tenth  centuries  the  edges  of  the  German 
swords  turned  another  way,  and  Mecklenburg, 
Pomerania,  Prussia,  and  part  of  Courland,  Si 
lesia,  Lusatia,  and  Saxony  were  wrested  from 
the  SarmaticmS)  lying  to  the  west  and  south 
west. 

It  is  not  unusual  to  raise  the  two  divisions 
of  the  great  Sarmatian  stock  to  the  rank  of 
separate  substantive  groups — independent  of 
each  other,  though  intimately  allied.  In  this 
case  Lithuania,  Livonia,  and  Courland  contain 
the  smaller  divisions,  which  is  conveniently  and 
generally  called  the  Lilhuanio  ;  the  population 
being  agricultural,  scanty,  limited  to  the  coun 
try  in  opposition  to  the  towns,  and  unimportant 
in  the  way  of  history  ;  a  population,  which  in 
the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  was  cruelly 
conquered  under  the  plea  of  Christianity  by  the 
German  Knights  of  the  Sword — rivals  in  ra 
pacity  and  bloodshed  to  their  equivalents  of  the 
Temple  and  St.  John — a  population  which,  at 
the  present  moment,  lies  like  iron  between  the 
hammer  and  the  anvil,  between  Russia  and 
Prussia  ;  and  which,  for  one  brief  period  only. 


THE   LITHUANIANS.  175 

under  the  Jagellons,  exercised  the  equivocal 
rights  of  a  dominant  and  encroaching  family — 
for  one  brief  period  only  within  the  true  histor 
ical  sera.  How  far  it  may  have  done  more  at 
an  earlier  epoch  remains  to  be  considered. 

The  other  branch  is  the  Slavonic  ;  compris 
ing  the  Russians,  the  Servians,  the  Illyrians, 
the  Slovenians  of  Styria  and  Carinthia,  the  Slo 
vaks  of  Hungary,  the  Tsheks  of  Bohemia,  and 
the**Lekhs  (or  Poles)  of  Poland,  Mazovia,  and 
Galiicia.  A  great  deal  is  said  about  the  future 
prospects  of  this  stock ;  the  doctrine  of  certain 
able  historians  being,  that  as  they  are  the 
youngest  of  nations — a  term  somewhat  difficult 
to  define — and  have  played  but  a  small  part  in 
the  world's  history  hitherto,  they  have  a  grand 
career  before  them  ;  a  prospect  more  glorious 
than  that  of  the  Romano-Keltic  French,  or  the 
Germanic  English  of  the  Old  and  ISTew  World. 
I  doubt  the  inference,  and  I.  doubt  the  fact 
on  which  it  rests.  But  of  this  more  anon. 
The  Sarmatian  Slavono-Lithuanians  are  the 
fourth  great  family  of  Europe.  They  certainly 
lie  in  the  line  of  migration  which  peopled  Ire 
land  from  Asia. 

South  of  these  lie  two  branches  of  fresh 
stock,  divided  from  each  other,  and  presenting 
the  difficult  phenomenon  of  geographical  dis 
continuity  conjoined  with  ethnological  affinity. 


176  EUROPEAN   ETHNOLOGY. 

Separated  from  the  most  southern  Slavonians  by 
the  two  intrusive  populations  of  the  Wallachi- 
ans  and  the  Majiars,  and  by  the  primitive  fam 
ily  of  the  Albanians,  come — 

a.  The  Greeks — and  separated  from  the  Sla 
vonians  of  Carinthia  and  Bohemia  by  intrusive 
Germans  at  the  present  moment,  and  by  the 
mysterious  Etruscans  in  ancient  times,  come — 

5.  The  Italians. — We  may  call  these  .two 
families  Latin  or  Hellenic  instead  of  Greek  and 
Italian,  if  we  choose ;  and  as  the  distribution 
of  nations  is  best  studied  during  the  earliest 
periods  of  their  history,  the  former  terms  are 
the  better. 

Before  we  can  consider  the  classification  of 
these  four  families — Ugrian,  Kelt,  Gothic,  and 
Gra3co-Latin — some  fresh  observations  and  cer 
tain  new  facts  are  requisite. 

The  ethnology  of  Europe  is  undoubtedly 
more  difficult  than  that  of  any  of  the  three  other 
quarters  of  the  globe — perhaps  more  so  than  that 
of  all  the  world  besides.  It  has  not  the  charac 
ter  of  being  so — but  so  it  is.  The  more  we 
know  the  more  we  may  know.  Illustrated  as 
is  Europe  by  the  historian  and  the  antiquarian, 
it  has  its  dark  holes  and  corners  made  all  the 
more  visible  from  the  illumination. 

In  the  first  place,  the  very  fact  of  its  being 
the  home  of  the  great  historical  nations  has 


MAJIAR   CONQUESTS.  177 

made  it  the  scene  of  unparalleled  displace 
ments ;  for  conquest  is  the  great  staple  of  his 
tory,  and  conquest  and  displacement  are  correl 
ative  terms.  A  greater  portion  of  Europe  can 
be  shown  to  be  held  by  either  mixed  or  conquer 
ing  nations  than  is  to  be  found  elsewhere — not 
that  this  absolutely  proves  the  encroachments 
to  have  been  greater;  but  that  gives  promi 
nence  to  the  greater  degree  in  which  they  have 
been  recorded.  Hence,  where  in  other  parts  of 
the  world  we  shut  up  our  papers  and  say  de  non 
apparentibus,  &c.,  in  Europe  we  are  forced 
upon  the  obscurest  investigations,  and  the  sub 
tlest  trains  of  reasoning. 

How  great  is  this  displacement  ?  The  his 
tory  of  only  a  few  out  of  many  of  the  conquer 
ing  nations  tells  us  a  pregnant  story  in  this  re 
spect.  It  shows  us  what  has  taken  place  within 
the  comparatively  brief  span  of  the  historical 
period.  What  lies  beyond  this  it  only  sug 
gests. 

The  Ugrians,  with  one  exception,  have  ever 
suffered  from  the  encroachments  of  others  rath 
er  than  been  encroachers  themselves.  But  the 
exception  is  a  remarkable  one. 

It  is  that  of  the  Majiars  of  Hungary,  who, 
whatever  claims  they  may  set  up  for  an  extrac 
tion  more  illustrious  than  the  one  which  they 
share  with  the  Laplanders  and  Ostiaks,  are 
9 


178  KELTIC   CONQUESTS. 

unequivocally  Ugrians — no  Circassians,  as  has 
"been  vainly  fancied,  and  no  descendants  from 
the  Huns  of  Attila,  as  has  been  more  reason 
ably  supposed.  This  latter,  however,  is  a  sup 
position  invalidated  by  the  high  probability 
of  the  warriors  of  the  Scourge  of  God  having 
been  Turk. 

Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  their  advent 
into  Europe  is  no  earlier  than  the  tenth  century, 
the  country  which  they  left  having  been  the 
present  domain  of  the  Bashkirs. 

The  amount  of  displacement  effected  by  the 
Kelts  is  difficult  to  determine.  We  hear  of  them 
in  so  many  places  that  the  family  seems  to  be 
ubiquitous.  Utterly  disbelieving  the  Cimmerii 
of  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus  to  have  been  Kel 
tic,  and  doubtful  about  both  the  Scordisci  of 
the  ancient  Noricum,  and  the  Celtiberians  of 
ancient  Spain,  I  am  inclined  to  limit  the  Keltic 
area  at  its  maximum  extension,  to  Venice  west 
wards,  and  to  the  neighborhood  of  Rome  south 
wards.  But  this  is  not  enough.  They  may  have 
been  aboriginal  in  parts  which  they  seem  to  have 
invaded  as  immigrants.  This  complicates  the 
question  and  makes  it  as  hard  to  ascertain  the  ex 
tent  of  their  encroachments  on  others,  as  the  ex 
tent  to  which  others  have  encroached  on  them 
— a  point  for  further  notice. 

The  Goths  have  ever  extended  their  frontier 


INTEKMIXTUKE.  179 

— a  frontier  which  I  believe  to  have  once  reached 
no  further  than  the  Elbe.*  From  thence  to  the 
ISTiemen  they  have  encroached  at  the  expense  of 
the  Sarmatians — Slavonic  or  Lithuanic  as  the 
case  may  be. 

In  the  time  of  Tacitus*  it  is  highly  probable 
that  there  were  no  Goths  north  of  the  Eyder. 
Since  then,  however,  Denmark,  Sweden,  and 
ISTorway  have  been  wrested  from  earlier  occu 
pants  and  become  Scandinavian. 

The  Ugrian  family  originally  extended  as 
far  south  as  the  Yaldai  Mountains.  This  part 
of  their  area  is  now  Russian. 

The  conquests  of  Rome  have  given  languages 
derived  from  the  Latin  to  Northern  Italy,  the 
Grisons,  France,  Spain  and  Portugal,  Wallachia 
and  Moldavia. 

This  brings  us  to  another  question,  that  of — 

Intermixture. — It  is  certain  that  the  lan 
guage  of  England  is  of  Anglo-Saxon  origin,  and 
that  the  remains  of  the  original  Keltic  are  unim 
portant.  It  is  by  no  means  so  certain  that  the 
blood  of  Englishmen  is  equally  Germanic.  A 
vast  amount  of  Kelticism,  not  found  in  our 
tongue,  very  probably  exists  in  our  pedigrees. 

The  ethnology  of  France  is  still  more  compli 
cated.  Many  writers  make  the  Parisian  a  Ro- 

*  Both  these  points  are  worked  out  in  detail  in  the  Author's 
Taciti  Germanid)  with  ethnological  notes. 


180  INTERMIXTURE. 

man  on  the  strength  of  his  language  ;  whilst 
others  make  him  a  Kelt  on  the  strength  of  cer 
tain  moral  characteristics  combined  with  the 
previous  Kelticism  of  the  original  Gauls. 

Spanish  and  Portuguese,  as  languages,  are 
derivatives  from  the  Latin.  Spain  and  Portugal, 
as  countries,  are  Iberic,  Latin,  Gothic,  and  Arab, 
in  different  proportions. 

Italian  is  modern  Latin  all  the  world  over  : 
yet  surely  there  must  be  much  Keltic  blood  in 
Lombardy,  and  much  Etruscan  intermixture  in 
Tuscany. 

In  the  ninth  century  every  man  between  the 
Elbe  and  the  Niemen  spoke  some  Slavonic  dia 
lect.  They  now  nearly  all  speak  German.  Surely 
the  blood  is  less  exclusively  Gothic  than  the 
speech. 

I  have  not  fallen  in  with  any  evidence  which 
induces  me  to  consider  the  great  Majiar  invasion 
of  Hungary  as  anything  other  than  a  simple  mil 
itary  conquest.  If  so — and  the  reasoning  ap 
plies  to  nine  conquests  out  of  ten — the  female 
half  of  the  ancestry  of  the  present  speakers  of 
the  Majiar  language  must  have  been  the  women 
of  the  country.  These  were  Turk,  Slavonic, 
Turko-Slavonic,  Romano-Slavonic,  and  many 
other  things  besides — anything,  in  short,  but 
Majiar. 

The  Grisons  language  is  of  Roman  origin. 


NAMES    OF   ANCIENT   NATIONS,  ETC.  181 

So  is  the  Wallachian  of  Wallachia  and  Mol 
davia. 

Nevertheless,  in  each  country,  the  original 
population  must  be,  more  or  less,  represented 
in  blood  by  the  present. 

This  is  enough  to  show  what  is  meant  by  in 
termixture  of  blood,  the  extent  to  which  it  de 
mands  a  special  investigation  of  its  own,  and 
the  number  of  such  investigations  required  in 
the  ethnology  of  Europe.  Indeed,  it  is  the  sub 
ject  of  a  special  department  of  the  science,  con 
veniently  called  minute  ethnology. 

Identification  of  ancient  nations,  tribes  and 
families. — If  there  were  no  such  thing  as  migra 
tion  and  displacement,  the  study  of  the  ancient 
writers  would  be  an  easy  matter.  As  it  is, 
it  is  a  very  difficult  one.  Nine-tenths  of  the 
names  of  Herodotus,  Strabo,  Csesar,  Pliny, 
Tacitus,  and  similar  writers  on  ethnology  and 
geography,  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  modern 
maps  ;  or,  if  found,  occur  in  new  localities. 
Such  is  the  case  with  the  name  of  our  own  na 
tion,  the  A.ngli,  who  are  now  known  as  the  peo 
ple  of  Engl-land ;  whereas,  in  the  eyes  of  Taci 
tus  they  were  Germans.  Others  have  not  only 
changed  place;  but  have  become  absolutely  ex 
tinct.  This  is,  of  course,  common  enough. 
Again,  the  name  itself  may  have  changed, 
though  the  population  to  which  it  applies  may 


182  NAMES    OF 

have  remained  the  same,  or  name  and  place 
may  have  each  changed. 

All  this  creates  difficulties,  though  not  such 
as  should  deter  us  from  their  investigation.  At 
the  same  time,  the  criticism  that  must  be  ap 
plied  is  of  a  special  and  peculiar  sort.  One  of 
the  more  complex  questions  with  which  it  has 
to  deal  is  the  necessary  but  neglected  prelimina 
ry  of  determining  the  language  in  which  this  or 
that  geographical  or  ethnological  name  occurs  ; 
which  is  by  no  means  an  off-hand  process.  When 
Tacitus  talks  of  Germans,  or  Herodotus  of  Scy- 
tJiians,  the  terms  Scythian  and  German  may  or 
may  not  belong  to  the  language  of  the  people 
thus  designated  ;  in  other  words,  they  may  or 
may  not  be  native  names — names  known  to  the 
tribes  to  which  the  geographer  applies  them. 

Generally  such  names  are  not  native — a 
statement  which,  at  first,  seems  hazardous  ;  since 
the  prima  facie  view  is  in  favor  of  the  name  by 
which  a  particular  nation  is  known  to  its  neigh 
bors,  being  the  name  by  wrhich  it  characterizes 
itself.  Do  not  our  neighbors  call  themselves 
Frangaise,  whilst  we  say  French,  arid  are  not 
the  names  identical  ?  In  this  particular  case 
they  are ;  but  the  case  is  an  exceptional  one. 
Contrast  with  it  that  of  the  word  Welsh.  Welsh 
and  Wales  are  the  English  names  of  the  Cymyr 
— English,  but  by  no  means  native  ;  English, 


ANCIENT   NATIONS,   ETC.  183 

but  as  little  Welsh  (strictly  speaking)  as  the  word 
Indian,  when  applied  to  the  Red  Men  of  Ame 
rica,  is  American. 

Welsh  is  the  name  by  which  the  Englishman 
denotes  his  fellow-citizens  of  the  Principality. 
The  German  of  Germany  calls  the  Italians  by 
the  same  designation;  the  same  by  which  he 
knows  the  Wallachians  also — since  Wallachia 
and  Wales  and  Welshland  are  all  from  the  same 
root.  What  an  error  would  it  be  to  consider  all 
these  three  countries  as  identical,  simply  because 
they  were  so  in  name  !  Yet  if  that  name  were 
native,  such  would  be  the  inference.  As  it  is, 
however,  the  chief  link  which  connects  them  is 
their  common  relation  to  Germany  (or  Germanic 
England) ;  a  link  which  would  have  been  wholly 
misinterpreted  had  we  overlooked  the  German 
origin  of  the  term,  and  erroneously  referred  it 
to  the  languages  of  the  countries  whereto  it  had 
its  application. 

An  extract  from  Klaproth's  "  Asia  Polyglot- 
ta"  shall  further  illustrate  this  important  differ 
ence  between  the  name  by  which  a  nation  is 
known  to  itself,  and  the  name  by  which  it  is 
known  to  its  geographer.  A  certain  population 
of  Siberia  calls  itself  Nyenech  or  Khasovo.  But 
none  of  its  neighbors  so  call  it.  On  the  con 
trary,  each  give  it  a  different  appellation. 


184          NAMES  OF   ANCIENT  NATIONS,    ETC. 

The  Obi-Ostiaks call  it  Jergan-Yakh 
"      Tungtisians        *'     Dydndal. 
i(      Syranians  "     Yarang. 

**      Woguls  "     Yarran-Kwn. 

"      Russians  4<     Samoeid. 

"What  if  some  ancient  tribe  were  thus  poly- 
onymous  ?  What  if  five  different  writers  of  an 
tiquity  had  derived  their  information  from  the 
five  different  nations  of  its  neighbors  ?  In  such 
a  case  there  would  have  been  five  terms  to  one 
object ;  none  of  them  belonging  to  the  language 
for  which  they  were  used. 

The  name,  then,  itself  of  each  ancient  popu 
lation  requires  a  preliminary  investigation.  And 
these  names  are  numerous — more  so  in  Europe 
than  elsewhere. 

The  importance  of  the  populations  to  which 
such  names  apply  is  greater  in  Europe  than  else 
where.  It  is  safe  to  say  this ;  because  there  is 
a  reason  for  it.  From  its  excessive  amount  of 
displacement,  Europe  is  that  part  of  the  world 
where  there  are  the  best  grounds  for  believing 
in  the  previous  existence  of  absolutely  extinct 
families,  or  rather  in  the  absolute  extinction  of  fa 
milies,  previously  existing.  There  are  no  names 
in  Asia  that  raise  so  many  problems  as  those  of 
the  European  Pelasgi  and  Etrusians. 

The  changes  and  complications  involved  in 
the  foregoing  observations  (and  they  are  but  few 
out  of  many)  are  the  results  of  comparatively 


PHILOLOGICAL   ISOLATION.  185 

recent  movements ;  of  conquests  accomplished 
within  the  last  twenty-five  centuries  ;  of  migra 
tions  within  (or  nearly  within)  the  historical 
period.  Those  truly  ethnological  phsenomena 
wrhich  belong  to  the  distribution  itself  of  the  ex 
isting  families  of  Europe  are,  at  least,  of  equal 
importance. 

The  most  marked  instances  of  philological 
isolation  are  European  ;  the  two  chief  speci 
mens  being  the  JBasque  and  Albanian  lan 
guages. 

The  Basque  language  of  the  Pyrenees  has 
the  same  relation  to  the  ancient  language  of  the 
Spanish  Peninsula  that  the  present  "Welsh  has 
to  the  old  speech  of  Britain.  It  represents  it  in 
its  fragments  ;  fragments,  whereof  the  preserva 
tion  is  due  to  the  existence  of  a  mountain  strong 
hold  for  the  aborigines  to  retire  to.  Now  so 
isolated  is  this  same  Basque  that  there  is  no 
language  in  the  world  which  is  placed  in  the 
same  class  with  it — no  matter  what  the  magni 
tude  and  import  of  that  class  may  be. 

The  Albanian  is  just  as  isolated.  As  different 
from  the  Greek,  Turkish,  and  Slavonic  tongues 
of  the  countries  in  its  neighborhood,  as  the 
Basque  is  from  the  French,  Spanish,  and  Breton, 
it  is  equally  destitute  of  relations  at  a  distance. 
It  is  undassed — at  least  its  position  as  Indo-Eu 
ropean  is  doubtful. 
9* 


186  INDO-GEKMANIC. 

"What  the  Pelasgian  and  old  Etruscan  tongues 
were,  is  uncertain.  They  were  probably  suffi 
ciently  different  from  the  languages  of  their 
neighborhood,  for  the  speakers  of  them  to  be 
mutually  unintelligible.  Beyond  this,  however, 
they  may  have  been  anything  or  nothing  in  the 
way  of  isolation.  They  may  have  been  as  pe 
culiar  as  the  Basque  and  Albanian.  They  may 
on  the  other  hand,  have  been  just  so  unlike  the 
Greek  and  Latin,  as  to  have  belonged  to  another 
class — the  value  of  that  class  being  unascertain 
ed.  Again,  that  class  may  or  may  not  have 
existing  representatives  amongst  the  tongues  at 
present  existing.  I  give  no  opinion  on  this 
point.  I  only  give  prominence  to  the  isolation 
of  the  Basque  and  Albanian.  We  know  these 
last  to  be  so  different  from  each  other,  and  from 
all  other  tongues,  as  to  come  under  none  of  the 
recognized  divisions  in  the  way  of  ethnographi 
cal  philology  and  its  classifications. 

Jndo- Germanic.  This  brings  us  to  the  term 
Indo- Germanic  ;  and  the  term  Indo- Germanic 
brings  us  to  the  retrospect  of  the  European  pop 
ulations — all  of  which,  now  in  existence,  have 
been  enumerated,  but  all  of  which  have  not 
been  classified. 

I.  The  Ugrians  are  a  branch  of  the  Tura 
nians. 

The  Turanians  form  either  a  whole  class  or 


INDO-GEEMANIC.  187" 

the  part  of  one,  according  to  the  light  in  which 
we  view  them ;  in  other  words,  the  group  has 
one  value  in  philology,  and  another  in  anatomy. 
This  is  nothing  extraordinary.  It  merely  means 
that  their  speech  has  more  prominent  characters 
than  their  physical  conformation. 

I  proceed,  however  to  our  specification  : — 

a.  The  Turanians  in  respect  to  their  physical 
conformation  are  a  branch  of  the  Mongolians  ; 
the  Chinese,  Eskimo,  and  others,  being  members 
.of  similar  and  equivalent  divisions. 

5.  In  respect  to  their  language,  they  are  the 
highest  group  recognized,  a  group  subordinate 
to  none  other. 

To  change  the  expression  of  this  difference, 
the  anatomical  naturalist  of  the  Human  Spe 
cies  has  in  the  word  Mongolian  a  term  of  gen 
erality  to  -  which  the  philologist  has  not  ar 
rived. 

II.  The  Greeks  and  Latins — the  Sarmatians 
— and  the  Germans  are  referable  to  a  higher 
group  ;  a  group  of  much  the  same  value  as  the 
Turanian. 

The  characteristics  of  this  group  are  philo 
logical. 

a.  The  numerals  of  the  three  great  divisions 
are  alike. 

1}.  A.  large  per-centage  of  the  names  of  the 
commoner  objects  are  alike. 


188  LNDO-EUROPEAtf. 

c.  The  signs  of  case  in  nouns,  and  of  person 
in  verbs,  are  alike. 

So  wide  has  been  the  geographical  extent  of 
the  populations  speaking  languages  thus  con 
nected  (languages  which  separated  from  the 
common  mother-tongue  subsequent  to  the  evolu 
tion  of  both  the  cases  of  nouns,  and  the  persons 
of  verbs),  that  the  literary  language  of  India 
belongs  to  the  class  in  question.  Hence,  when 
this  fact  became  known,  and  when  India  passed 
for  the  eastern  and  Germany  for  the  western 
extremity  of  the  great  area  of  this  great  tongue, 
the  term  Indo-Germanic  became  current. 

But  its  currency  was  of  no  long  duration. 
Dr.  Prichard  showed  that  the  Keltic  tongues 
had  Indo-Germanic  numerals,  a  certain  per-cent- 
age  of  Indo-Germanic  names  for  the  commoner 
objects,  and  Indo-Germanic  personal  termina 
tions  of  verbs.  Since  then,  the  Keltic  has  been 
considered  as  a  fixed  language,  with  a  definite 
place  in  the  classification  of  the  philologist ;  and 
the  term  Indo-European^  expressive  of  the  class 
to  which,  along  with  the  Sarmatian,  the  Gothic, 
and  the  Classical  tongues  of  Greece  and  Italy, 
it  belongs,  has  superseded  the  original  com 
pound  Indo-Germanic. 

We  now  know  what  is  meant  by  Indo-Euro- 

*  For  a  criticism  on  this  term  see  pp.  86-89. 


INDO-EUROPEAN.  189 

pean  /  a  terra  of,  at  least,  equal  generality  with 
the  term  Turanian. 

a.  In  physical  conformation  the  Indo-Euro- 
peans  are  a  branch  of  the  higher  division  so  im 
properly  and  inconveniently  called  Caucasian. 

1).  In  language  they  are  the  highest  group 
hitherto  recognized,  a  group  subordinate  to 
none  other. 

And  we  have  also  improved  our  measure  of 
the  isolation  of  the — 

III.  Basques. — Anatomically  these  are  Cau 
casian  so-called.  .  Philologically,  they  are  the 
only  members  of  the  group  to  which  they  belong, 
and  that  group  is  the  highest  recognized.  They 
are  like  a  species  in  natural  history,  which  is 
the  only  one  of  its  genus,  the  genus  being  the 
only  one  of  its  order,  and  the  order  being  so  in 
determinate  as  to  have  no  higher  class  to  which 
it  is  subordinate. 

IY.  The  Albanians  are  in  the  same  predi 
cament. 

This  is  the  state  of  classification  which  pre 
eminently  inspires  us  with  the  ambition  of  mak 
ing  higher  groups  ;  higher  groups  in  philology ', 
since  in  anatomy  we  have  them  ready-made ; 
i.  e.,  expressed  by  the  terms  Mongolian  and  Cau 
casian.  The  school  which  has  made  the  most 
notable  efforts  in  this  way  is  the  Scandinavian. 
In  England  it  is,  perhaps,  better  appreciated 


190  THE   FINNIC   HYPOTHESIS. 

than  in  Germany,  and  in  Germany  better  than 

in  France. 

I  think  it  had  great  truth  in  fragments.     It 

will  first  be  considered  on  its  philological  side. 
Rask — the  greatest  genius  for  comparative  phi 
lology  that  the  world  has  seen — exhibited  the 
germs  of  it  in  his  work  on  the  Zendavesta. 
Herein  his  hypothesis  was  as  follows.  The 
geologist  will  follow  him  with  ease.  Jnst  as  the 
later  formations,  isolated  and  unconnected  of 
themselves,  lie  on  an  earlier,  and  comparatively 
continuous,  substratum  of  secondary,  palaeozoic, 
or  primary  antiquity,  so  do  the  populations, 
speaking  Celtic,  Gothic,  Slavonic,  and  Classi 
cal  languages.  Conquerors  and  encroachers, 
wherever  they  came  in  contact  with  stocks  alien 
to  their  own,  they  made,  at  an  early  period  of 
history,  nine-tenths  of  Europe  and  part  of  Asia 
their  own.  But  before  them  lay  an  aboriginal  pop 
ulation — before  them  in  the  way  of  time.  This 
consisted  of  tribes,  more  or  less  related  to  each 
other,  which  filled  Europe  from  the  North  Cape 
to  Cape  Coinorin  and  Gibraltar — progenitors 
of  the  Laplanders  on  the  north,  and  the  pro 
genitors  of  the  Basques  of  the  Pyrenees  on 
the  south — all  at  one  time  continuous.  This 
time  was  the  period  anterior  to  the  invasion  of 
the  oldest  of  the  above-mentioned  families. 
More  than  this,  Hindostan  was  similarly  peo- 


THE    FINNIC   HYPOTHESIS.  191 

pled ;  and,  by  assumption,  the  parts  between 
Northern  Hindostan  and  Europe. 

Such  the  theory.  Now  let  us  look  to  the 
present  distribution.  Almost  all  Europe  is  what 
is  called  Indo-European ;  i.  e.,  Celtic,  Gothic, 
Slavonic,  or  Classical.  But  it  is  not  wholly  so. 
In  Scandinavia  we  have  the  Laps  ;  in  Northern 
Russia  the  Finns  ;  on  the  junction  of  Spain  and 
France  the  Basques.  These  are  fragments  of 
the  once  continuous  Aborigines,  separated  from 
each  other  by  Celts,  Goths,  and  Slavonians. 
Then,  as  to  India.  In  the  Dekhan  we  have  a 
family  of  languages  called  the  Tamul,  isolated 
also.  Between  each  of  these  points  the  popula 
tion  is  homogeneous  as  compared  with  itself; 
heterogeneous  as  compared  with  the  tribes  just 
enumerated.  But  there  was  once  a  continuity, 
even  as  the  older  rocks  in  geology  are  connected, 
whilst  the  newer  ones  are  dissociated. 

Such  was  the  hypothesis  of  Rask ;  an  hy 
pothesis  to  which  he  applied  the  epithet  Finnic, 
since  the  Finn  of  Finland  was  the  type  and 
sample  of  these  early,  aboriginal,  hypotheti- 
cally  continuous,  and  hypothetically  connected 
tongues.  The  invasion,  however,  of  the  stronger 
In  do-Europeans  broke  them  up.  Be  it  so.  It 
was  a  grand  guess  ;  even  if  wrong,  a  grand  and 
a  suggestive  one.  Still  it  was  but  a  guess.  I  will 
not  say  that  no  details  were  worked  out.  Some 
few  were  indicated. 


192  THE   FINNIC   HYPOTHESIS. 

Points  which  connected  tongues  so  distant 
as  the  Tainul  and  the  Finn  were  noticed,  but 
more  than  this  was  not  done.  Still,  it  was  a 
doctrine  which,  if  it  were  proved  false,  was  bet 
ter  than  a  large  per-centage  of  the  true  ones. 
It  taught  inquirers  where  to  seek  the  affinities 
of  apparently  isolated  languages;  and  it  bade 
them  pass  over  those  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
look  to  the  quarters  where  other  tongues  equally 
isolated  presented  themselves. 

I  have  mentioned  Rask  as  the  apostle  of  it. 
Arndt,  I  am  told,  was  the  originator.  The 
countrymen,  however,  of  Rask  have  been  those 
who  have  most  acted  on  it. 

But  they  took  up  the  weapon  at  the  other 
end.  It  is  the  anatomists  and  archaeologists  of 
Scandinavia  who  have  worked  it  most.  The 
Celts  have  a  skull  of  their  own  just  as  they  have 
a  language.  So  have  the  Danes,  Swedes,  Nor 
wegians,  Germans,  Dutch,  and  Englishmen. 
Never  mind  the  characteristics.  Suffice^  that  it 
was — or  was  supposed  to  be — different  from 
that  of  the  Finns  and  Basques.  So  had  the 
Hindus,  different  from  that  of  the  Tarnuls.  Now 
the  burial-places  of  the  present  countries  of  the 
different  Gothic  populations  contain  skulls  of  the 
Gothic  character  only  up  to  a  certain  point. 
The  very  oldest  stand  in  contrast  with  the  oldest 
forms  but  one.  The  very  oldest  stand  in  contrast 


THE    FINNIC    HYPOTHESIS  193 

with  the  oldest  form  but  one.  The  very  oldest 
are  Lap,  Basque,  and  Tamul.  Surely  this — if 
true — confirms  the  philological  theory.  But  is 
it  true?  I  am  not  inclined  to  change  the  terms 
already  used.  It  is  a  grand  and  a  suggestive 
guess. 

More  than  this  is  not  necessary  to  say  at  pre 
sent  ;  since  any  further  speculation  in  respect  to 
the  migration  (or  migrations)  which  peopled 
Europe  from  the  hypothetical  centre  in  Asia  is 
premature.  The  ethnology  of  Asia  is  necessary 
as  a  preliminary. 


194:  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Monosyllablic  Area — the  T'hay— the  M6n  and  Kho— Tables 
— the  B'hot— the  Chinese — Burmese— Persia— India — Ta- 
muliun  family — the  Brahui — the  Dioscurians — the  Georgi 
ans — Iron — Mizjeji — Lesgians — Armeniens — Asia  Minor — 
Lycians — Carians — Paropamisans — Conclusion. 

OUR  plan  is  now  to  ta  keup  the  different  lines 
of  migration  at  the  points  where  they  were  re 
spectively  broken  off.  This  was  at  their  differ 
ent  points  of  contact  with  Asia.  The  first  line 
was — 

I.  The  American. — In  affiliating  the  Amer 
ican  with  the  Asiatic,  the  ethnologist  is  in  the 
position  of  an  irrigator,  who  supplies  some  wide 
tract  of  thirsty  land  with  water  derived  from  a 
higher  level,  but  kept  from  the  parts  below  by 
artificial  embankments.  These  he  removes  ;  his 
process  being  simple  but  effectual,  and  wholly 
independent  of  the  clever  machinery  of  pumps, 
water-wheels,  and  similar  branches  of  hydrau 
lics.  The  obstacle  being  taken  away,  gravita 
tion  does  the  rest. 

The  over-valuation  of  the  Eskimo  peculiari 
ties  is  the  great  obstacle  to  American  ethnology. 


AMERICA.  195 

When  these  are  cut  down  to  their  due  level,  the 
connection  between  America  and  Asia  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  one  of  the  clearest  we  have. 
It  is  certainly  clearer  than  the  junction  of  Africa 
and  north-western  Asia;  not  more  obscure  than 
that  between  Oceanica  and  the  Transgangetic 
Peninsula  ;  and  incalculably  less  mysterious 
than  that  which  joins  Asia  to  Europe. 

Indeed,  there  is  no  very  great  break,  either 
philologically  or  anatomically,  until  we  reach 
the  confines  of  China.  Here,  the  physical  con 
formation  keeps  much  the  same ;  the  language, 
however,  becomes  monosyllabic. 

Now  many  able  writers  lay  so  much  stress 
upon  this  monosyllabic  character,  as  to  believe 
that  the  separation  between  the  tongues  so  con 
stituted,  and  those  wherein  we  have  an  increase  of 
syllables  with  a  due  amount  of  inflexion  besides, 
is  too  broad  to  be  got  over.  If  speech  were  a 
mineral,  this  might,  perhaps,  be  true.  But 
speech  grows,  and  if  one  philological  fact  be 
more  capable  of  proof  than  another,  it  is  that  of 
a  monsyllabic  and  uninflected  tongue  being  a 
polysyllabic  and  inflected  one  in  its  first  stage 
of  development,  or  rather  in  its^cw-development. 

The  Kamskadale,  the  Koriak,  the  Aino- Japa 
nese,  and  the  Korean  are  the  Asiatic  languages 
most  like  those  of  America.  Unhesitatingly  as 
I  make  this  assertion — an  assertion  for  which  I 


196  AMERICA. 

have  numerous  tabulated  vocabularies  as  proof 
— I  am  by  no  means  prepared  to  say  that  one- 
tenth  part  of  the  necessary  work  has  been  done 
for  the  parts  in  question  •  indeed,  it  is  my  im 
pression  that  it  is  easier  to  connect  America 
with  the  Kurile  Isles  and  Japan,  &c.,  than  it  is 
to  make  Japan  and  the  Kurile  Isles,  &c.,  Asiatic. 
The  group  which  they  form  belongs  to  an  area 
where  the  displacements  have  been  very  great. 
The  Kamskadale  family  is  nearly  extinct.  The 
Koreans,  who  probably  occupied  a  great  part  of 
Mantshuria,  have  been  encroached  on  by  both 
the  Chinese  and  the  Mantshus.  The  same  has 
been  the  case  with  the  Ainos  of  the  lower  Amur. 
Lastly,  the  whole  of  the  northern  half  of  China 
was  originally  in  the  occupancy  of  tribes  who 
were  probably  intermediate  to  their  Chinese  con 
querors,  the  Mantshus  and  the  Koreans. 

That  the  philological  affinities  necessary  for 
making  out  the  Asiatic  origin  of  the  Americans 
lie  anywhere  but  on  the  surface  of  the  language, 
I  confess.  Of  the  way  whereby  they  should  be 
looked  for,  the  following  is  an  instance. 

The  YukaJwri  is  an  Asiatic  language  of  the 
Kolyma  and  Indijirka.  Compare  its  numerals 
with  those  of  the  other  tribes  in  the  direction  of 
America.  They  differ.  They  are  not  Koriak, 
not  Kamskadale,  by  no  means  Eskimo ;  nor  yet 
Koluch.  Before  we  find  the  name  of  a  single 


YUKAHIKI   WOKD    FOE    TWO.  197 

Yukahiri  unit  reappearing  in  other  languages, 
we  must  go  as  far  south  along  the  western  coast 
of  America  as  the  parts  about  Vancouver's  Isl 
and.  There  we  find  the  Hailtsa  tongue — where 
maluk  =  two.  Now  the  Yukahiri  term  for  two 
is  not  maluk.  It  is  a  word  which  I  do  not  re 
member.  Nevertheless,  maluk  =  two  does  ex 
ist  in  the  Yukahiri.  The  word  for  eight  is 
module  X  the  term  for  four  (2  x  4.) 

This  phenomenon  would  be  repeated  in  Eng 
lish  if  our  numerals  ran  thus  :  1.  one  ;  2.  pair; 
4. four;  8.  two-fours;  in  which  case  all  argu 
ments  based  upon  the  correspondence  or  non- 
correspondence  of  the  English  numerals  with 
those  of  Germany  and  Scandinavia  would  be  as 
valid  as  if  the  word  two  were  the  actual  name  of 
the  second  unit.  Indeed,  in  one  respect  they 
would  be  more  so.  The  peculiar  way  in  which 
the  Hailtsa  malulc  reappears  in  the  Yukahiri  is 
conclusive  against  the  name  being  borrowed. 
Whether  it  is  accidental  is  quite  another  ques 
tion.  This  depends  upon  the  extent  to  which  it 
is  a  single  coincidence,  or  one  out  of  many.  All 
that  is  attempted,  at  present,  is  to  illustrate  the 
extent  to  which  resemblances  may  be  disguised, 
and  the  consequent  care  requisite  for  detecting 
them.* 

II.    The  connection  between  Oceanica  and 

*  Since  this  chapter  was  written,  the  news  of  the  premature 


198  THE   MONOSYLLABIC  AREA. 

South-eastern  Asia. — The  physical  confirmation 
of  the  Malays  is  so  truly  that  of  the  Indo-Chi 
nese,  that  no  difficulties  lie  in  this  department. 
The  philological  ones  are  a  shade  graver.  They 
involve  the  doubt  already  suggested  in  respect 
to  the  relations  between  a  monosyllabic  tongue 
like  the  Siamese,  and  a  tongue  other  than  mo 
nosyllabic  like  the  Malay. 

This  brings  us  to  the  great  area  of  the  mono 
syllabic  tongues  itself.  Geographically ',  it  means 
China,  Tibet,  the  Transgangetic  Peninsula,  and 
the  Sub-Himalayan  parts  of  northern  India,  such 

death  of  the  most  influential  supporter  of  the  double  doctrine  of 
(a.)  the.  unity  of  the  American  families  amongst  each  other,  and 
(6.)  the  difference  of  the  American  race  from  all  others — Dr. 
Morton,  of  Philadelphia — has  reached  me.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
say,  that  the  second  of  these  positions  is,  in  the  mind  of  the  pre 
sent  writer,  as  exceptionable  as  the  first  is  correct.  Nor  is  it 
likely  to  be  otherwise  as  long  as  the  eastern  side  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  is  so  exclusively  studied  as  it  is  by  both  the  American 
and  the  English  school.  I  have  little  fear  of  the  Russians  falling 
into  this  error.  With  this  remark  the  objections  against  the  very 
valuable  labors  of  Dr.  Morton  begin  and  end.  His  Crania 
Americana  is  by  far  the  most  valuable  book  of  its  kind.  His 
Crania  JEgyptiaca  and  other  minor  works,  especially  his  re 
searches  on  Hybridism,  are  all  definite  additions  to  ethnological 
science.  The  impulse  which  he,  personally,  gave  to  the  very 
active  study  of  the  Human  Species,  which  so  honorably  charac 
terises  his  countrymen,  is  more  than  an  Englishman  can  exactly 
value.  Perhaps,  it  is  second  only  to  that  given  by  Gallatin; 
perhaps,  it  is  scarcely  second. 


THE  MONOSYLLABIC   AREA.  199 

as  Nepal,  Sikkim,  Assam,  the  Garo  country,  and 
other  similar  localities. 

Politically,  it  means  the  Chinese,  Nepalese, 
Burmese,  and  Siamese  empires,  along  with  se 
veral  British- Indian  and  independent  tribes. 

The  chief  religion  is  Buddhism  ;  the  physi 
cal  conformation  unequivocally  Mongolian. 

The  transition  from  raw?#-syllabic  to  poly- 
eyllabic  has  never  created  much  difficulty  with 
myself ;  nor  do  I  think  it  will  do  so  with  any 
writer  who  considers  the  great  difficulties  in 
volved  in  the  denial  of  it.  What  these  are  will 
become  apparent  when  we  look  at  the  map  of 
Asia,  and  observe  the  tongues  which  come  in 
contact  with  those  of  the  class  in  question. 
Then  it  will  become  clear  that  unless  we  allow 
it  to  form  a  connecting  link,  it  not  only  stands 
alone  itself,  ~but  isolates  other  families.  Thus, 
it  is  only  through  the  Transgangetic  Peninsula 
that  the  Oceanic  family  can  be  connected  with 
the  Indian  ;  a  connection  which  rests  on  grounds 
sufficiently  good  to  have  induced  careful  writers* 
to  believe  the  ampliation  to  be  direct  and  imme 
diate.  It  is  only  through  this  same  Transgan 
getic  Peninsula  plus  Tibet  and  China  that  the 

*  Mr.  Norris,  for  instance,  of  the  Asiatic  Society ,has  given 
reasons  for  connecting  the  Australian  tongues  with  those  of  the 
Dekhan. 


200  MONOSYLLABIC   LANGUAGES 

great  Siberian  families — Turanian  and  Japanese 
— can  be  similarly  connected  with  the  Oceanic. 
Yet  such  a  connection  really  exists,  though,  from 
its  indirect  character,  it  is  but  partially  recog 
nised.  Nevertheless,  it  is  recognised  (often, 
perhaps,  unconsciously)  by  every  inquirer  who 
hesitates  about  separating  the  Malay  from  the 
Mongol. 

A  difficulty  of  far  greater  magnitude  arises 
from  the  following  considerations  :  There  are 
two  principles  upon  which  languages  may  be 
classified.  According  to  the  first,  we  take  two 
or  more  languages  as  we  find  them,  ascertain 
certain  of  their  characteristics,  and  then  inquire 
how  far  these  characteristics  coincide.  Two  or 
more  languages,  thus  taken,  may  agree  in  hav 
ing  a  large  per-centage  of  grammatical  inflex 
ions,  in  which  case  they  would  agree  in  certain 
positive  characters.  On  the  other  hand,  two  or 
more  languages  may  agree  in  the  negative  fact 
of  having  a  small  and  scanty  vocabulary,  and 
an  inflexional  system  equally  limited. 

The  complication  here  suggested  lies  in  a 
fact  of  which  a  little  reflection  will  show  the 
truth,  viz.  that  negative  points  of  similarity 
prove  nothing  in  the  way  of  ethnological  connec 
tion;  whence,  as  far  as  the  simplicity  of  their 
respective  grammars  is  concerned,  the  Siamese, 
Burmese,  Chinese,  and  Tibetan  may  be  as  little 


MONOSYLLABIC    LANGUAGES.  201 

related  to  each  other,  or  to  a  common  mother- 
tongue,  as  the  most  unlike  languages  of  the 
whole  world  of  Speech. 

Again — it  by  no  means  follows  that  because 
all  the  tongues  of  the  family  in  question  are 
comparatively  destitute  of  inflexion,  they  are 
all  in  the  same  class.  A  characteristic  of  the 
kind  may  arise  from  two  reasons  ;  n<m-develop- 
ment,  or  loss.  There  is  a  stage  anterior  to  the 
evolution  of  inflexions,  when  each  word  has  but 
one  form,  and  when  relation  is  expressed  by 
mere  juxtaposition,  with  or  without  the  super- 
addition  of  a  change  of  accent.  The  tendencies 
of  this  stage  are  to  combine  words  in  the  way 
of  composition,  but  not  to  go  further.  Every 
word  retains,  throughout,  its  separate  substan 
tive  character,  and  has  a  meaning  independent 
of  its  juxtaposition  with  the  words  with  which 
it  combines. 

But  there  is  also  a  stage  subsequent  to  such 
an  evolution,  when  inflexions  have  become  ob 
literated,  and  when  case-endings,  like  the  i  in 
patr-i,  are  replaced  by  prepositions  (in  some 
cases  by  post-positions)  like  the  to  in  to  father ; 
and  when  personal  endings,  like  the  o  in  voc-o, 
are  replaced  by  pronouns,  like  the  /in  I  call. 
Of  the  first  of  these  stages,  the  Chinese  is  the 
language  which  affords  the  most  typical  speci 
men  that  can  be  found  in  the  present  late  date 
10 


202      .  MONOSYLLABIC  LANGUAGES. 

of  languages — late,  considering  that  we  are  look 
ing  for  a  sample  of  its  earliest  forms.  Of  the 
last  of  these  stages  the  English  of  the  year  1851 
affords  the  most  typical  specimen  that  can  "be 
found  in  the  present  early  date  of  language — 
early,  considering  that  we  are  looking  for  a 
sample  of  its  latest  forms. 

Hence — 

a.  How  far  the  different  monosyllabic  tongues 
are  all  in  the  same  stage — is  one  question. 

1}.  Whether  this  stage  be  the  earlier  or  the 
later  one — is  another  ;  and — 

c.  Whether  they  are  connected  by  relation 
ship  as  well  as  in  external  form — is  a  third. 

In  answer  to  this,  it  is  safe  to  say  (a.)  that 
they  are  all  uninflected,  because  inflexions  have 
yet  to  be  evolved  ;  not  because  they  have  been 
evolved  and  lost — as  is  the  case  with  the  En 
glish,  a  language  which  stands  at  one  end  of 
the  scale,  just  as  the  Chinese  does  at  the  other. 

(5.)  They  are,  also,  all  connected  by  a  ~bona 
fide  ethnological  relationship  ;  as  can  be  shown 
by  numerous  tables ;  the  Chinese  and  Tibetans 
being,  apparently,  the  two  extremes,  in  the  way 
of  difference. 

As  for  their  geographical  distribution,  it  is 
a  blank-and-prize  lottery,  with  large  and  small 
areas  in  juxtaposition  and  contrast,  just  as  has 
been  the  case  in  America  and  in  Africa ;  the 


THE  T'IIAY.  203 

Sub-Himalayan  parts  of  British  India,  Sikkim. 
and  Nepal,  and  the  Indo-Burmese  frontier  (or 
the  country  about  Assam  and  Munipiir)  being 
the  tracts  where  the  multiplicity  of  mutually 
unintelligible  tongues  within  a  limited  district 
is  greatest. 

Again — whenever  the  latter  distribution  oc 
curs,  we  have  either  a  mountain-fastness,  politi 
cal  independence,  or  the  primitive  pagan  creed 
— generally  all  three. 

The  population  speaking  a  monosyllabic  lan 
guage  which  is  in  the  most  immediate  contact 
with  the  continental  tribes  of  the  Oceanic  stock, 
is  the  Southern  Siamese.  This  reaches  as  far  as 
the  northern  frontier  of  Kedah  (Quedah),  about 
8°  N".  L.  Everything  north  of  this  is  monosyl 
labic,  with  the  exception  of  a  Malay  settlement 
(probably,  though  not  certainly,  of  recent  origin) 
on  the  coast  of  Kambogia. 

Now  the  great  stock  to  which  the  Siamese 
belong  is  called  T'hay.  Its  direction  is  from 
north  to  south,  coinciding  with  the  course  of  the 
great  river  Menarn  ;  beyond  the  head-waters  of 
which  the  T'hay  tribes  reach  as  far  as  Assam. 
Of  these  northern  T'hay,  the  Khamti  are  the 
most  numerous ;  and  it  is  important  to  know 
that  as  many  as  92  words  out  of  100  are  com 
mon  to  this  dialect  and  to  the  classical  Siamese 
of  Bankok. 


204:  THE  MON  AND  KHO. 

Again,  the  intermediate  tribes  of  the  Upper 
and  Middle  Menam — the  Lau — speak  a  lan 
guage  as  unequivocally  Siamese  as  the  Khamti. 
If  so,  the  Tchay  tongue,  widely  extended  as  it 
is  in  the  particular  direction  from  north  to 
south,  is  a  tongue  falling  into  but  few  dialects  ; 
the  inference  ffom  which  is,  that  it  has 
spread  within  a  comparatively  recent  period. 
Consequently,  it  has  encroached  upon  certain 
other  populations  and  effected  certain  displace 
ments. 

I  think  that  even  in  the  minuter  details  that 
now  suggest  themselves  we  can  see  our  way ;  so 
far,  at  least,  as  to  determine  in  which  direction 
the  movement  took  place — whether  it  were  from 
north  to  south  or  from  south  to  north. 

Few  classes  of  tongues  can  be  better  studied 
for  ethnological  purposes  than  the  monosyllabic. 
A  paper  of  Buchanan's,  and  another  of  Leyden's, 
are  amongst  the  most  valuable  articles  of  the 
Asiatic  Researches.  One  of  Mr.  Brown's,  in 
the  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal, 
gives  us  numerous  tabulated  vocabularies  for 
the  Burmese,  Assamese  and  Indian  frontiers. 
Mr.  Hodgson  and  .Dr.  Robertson  have  done  still 
more  for  the  same  parts.  Lastly,  the  chief 
southern  dialects,  which  have  been  less  studied, 
are  tabulated  in  the  second  volume  of  "  Craw- 
furd's  Embassy  to  Siam." 


.  THE    MON  AND  KI1O.  205 

Upon  looking  over  these,  we  find  specimens 
of  the  two  tongues  which  lie  east  and  west  of 
the  southern  Siamese ;  the  first  being  the  IOio 
language  of  Karnbogia,  and  the  second  the 
3£on  of  Pegu.  Each  of  these  is  spoken  over  a 
small  area ;  indeed  the  Mon,  which  is,  at  pre 
sent,  nearly  limited  to  the  Delta  of  the  Ira- 
waddi,  is  fast  giving  way  before  the  encroach 
ing  dialects  of  the  Burmese  class,  whilst  the 
Kho  of  Karnbogia  is  similarly  limited  to  the 
lower  part  of  the  Mekhong,  and  is  hemmed  in 
by  the  Siamese,  the  Lau,  and  the  Anamitic  of 
Cochin  China. 

lSrow,  separated  as  they  are,  the  Mon  and 
Kho  are  liker  to  each  other  than  either  is  to  tiie 
interjacent  Siamese ;  the  inference  from  this 
being  that  at  one  time  they  were  connected  by 
transitional  and  intermediate  dialects,  aborigi 
nal  to  the  lower  Men  am,  but  now  displaced  by 
the  Siamese  of  Bankok  introduced  from  the 
parts  to  the  northwards. 

If  this  be  the  case,  the  monosyllabic  tongue 
most  closely  allied  to  those  of  the  Malayan 
Peninsula  (which  are  not  monosyllabic)  is  not 
the  present  Siamese,  but  the  language  which  the 
present  Siamese  displaced. 

How  far  this  view  is  confirmed  by  any  spe 
cial  affinities  between  the  Malay  dialects  with 
the  Mon  and  Kho  is  more  than  I  can  say.  The 
examination,  however,  should  be  made. 


206 


TABLES. 


The  southern  T'hay  dialects  are  not  only 
less  like  the  Mon  and  Kho  than  is  expected 
from  their  locality,  but  the  northern  ones  are 
less  like  those  of  the  Lido-Burmese  frontier  and 
Assam  than  the  geographical  contiguity  pre 
pares  us  to  surmise;  since  the  per-centage  of 
words  common  to  the  Khamti  and  the  other 
dialects  of  Munipur  and  Assam  is  only  as  fol 
lows* 


Siamese. 


Khamti. 


0 1  per  cent,  with  the  Aka. 


Abor. 

Mishimi. 

Burmese. 

Karien. 

Singpho. 

Jili. 

Garo. 

JMunipuri. 

Songphu. 

Kapwi. 

Koreng. 

Maram. 

Kamphung. 

Luhuppa. 

North  Tankhul. 

Central  Tankhul. 

South  Tankhul. 

Khoibu. 

Marina:. 


*  Taken,  with  much  besides,  from  Mr.  Brown's  Tables,  in 
the  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal. 


0  .... 

1 

3  

....    5 

6  

8 

8  

8 

3  .... 

3 

10  

10 

1  

3 

3  

3 

1  

t 

0  .... 

0 

1  

1 

0  .... 

0 

0  

....     0 

0  

0 

0  

0 

0  ...  . 

0 

0  

0 

0  

0 

0  .... 

0 

TABLES. 


207 


This  shows  that  their  original  locality  is  to 
"be  sought  in  an  eastern  as  well  as  in  a  northern 
direction. 

If  the  T'hay  dialects  are  less  like  the  Bur 
mese  than  most  other  members  of  their  class, 
they  are  more  like  the  B'liot  of  Tibet. 


English 

boat. 

A  horn 

ru. 

Khamti 

hu. 

Lau 

heic. 

Siamese 

reng. 

W.  Tibetan* 

grit. 

S.  Tibetan* 

kua. 

English 

bone. 

Khamti 

nuk. 

Lau 

duk. 

Siamese 

ka-duk. 

S.  Tibetan 

ruko. 

English 

crow. 

A  horn 

lea. 

Khamti 

ka. 

Lau 

hi. 

Siamese 

ka. 

W.  Tibetan 

kha-ta- 

English 

ear. 

Khamti  (3) 

nu. 

W.  Tibetan 

sd. 

S.  Tibetan 

amcho. 

English 

°£g-  . 

Ahom 

khrai. 

Khamti 

khai. 

Lau 

khai. 

Siamese 

khai. 

English 

father. 

A  horn  (3) 

po. 

W.  Tibetan 

phd. 

S.  Tibetan 

paid. 

English 

fire. 

Ahoni  (3) 

fai. 

W.  Tibetan 

ma. 

S.  Tibetan 

me. 

English. 

flower. 

Ahum 

blok. 

Khamti 

mok. 

Lau 

dok. 

Siamese 

dokmai. 

W.  Tibetan 

me-  tog. 

S.  Tibetan 

men-tok. 

English 

foot. 

A  horn 

tin. 

W.  Tibetan 
S.  Tibetan 

rkang-pa. 
kango. 

English 

hair. 

A  horn 

phrum. 

Khamti 

phom. 

Lau 

phom. 

Siamese 

phom. 

W.  Tibetan 

skra. 

S7)U 

S.  Tibetan 

ta. 

km.. 

*  S.  means  the  spoken.  W.  the  written  Tibetan.  The  collation 
has  been  made  from  a  table  of  Mr.  Hodgson's  in  the  Journal  of 
the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal.  The  Ahom  is  a  T-hay  dialect 


208 


TABLES. 


English 

bead. 

English 

tooth. 

A  horn 

rn. 

Ahom 

khiu. 

Khamti 

ho. 

Khamli. 

khiu. 

Lau 

1,0. 

Lau. 

khiau 

Siamese 

hoa. 

Siamese 

khiau. 

W.  Tibetan 

mgo. 

Tibetan 

SO' 

S.  Tibetan 

go- 

English 

moon. 

English 
Ahom 

tree. 
tun. 

Siamese 

tawan. 

Khamti 

tun. 

W.  Tibetan 

zlava. 

Lau 

ton- 

S.  Tibetan 

da  wo. 

Siamese 

ton. 

English 

mother. 

W.  Tibetan 

S.  Tibetan 

I.  jvn-shittg. 
shin  (long. 

Ahom  (4) 

me. 

O 

Tibetan 

ama. 

English 

three. 

Ahom  (3) 

Sfl?H. 

English 
Khamti  (3) 

nujht. 
khan. 

W.  Tibetan 
S.  Tibetan 

q-fiiin. 
sum. 

W.  Tibetan 

m  tshan-mo. 

S.  Tibetan 

chen-mo. 

English 

four. 

Ahom  (3) 

91. 

English 

oil. 

W.  Tibetan 

bzhi. 

Ahom 
Khamti 

mangra. 
nam. 

S.  Tibetan 

zhyi. 

Lau  (2) 

man. 
nam. 

English 
Ahom  (3) 

five. 
ha. 

S.  Tibetan 

man. 
num. 

W.  Tibetan 
S.  Tibetan 

hna. 

gna. 

English 

road. 

Ahom  (2) 
Siamese 
W.  Tibetan 

tang. 
thong, 

lami. 

English 
Ahom 
Siamese  f3) 

six. 
ruk. 
hole. 

S.  Tibetan 

lani. 

W.  Tibetan 

druk. 

S.  Tibetan 

tht'i. 

English 

salt 

Ahom 

klu. 

English 

nine. 

Khamti 

ICM. 

Ahom  (3) 

kau. 

Lau 

keu. 

W.  Tibetan 

d-gv. 



keou. 

S.  Tibetan 

guh. 

Siamese 

kleua. 

Englsh 

skin. 

English 
Ahom 

in,  on. 
mt. 

Ahom 

pick. 

Khamti 

nun. 

W.  Tibetan 

pag  spa. 

La  a 

neu. 

S.  Tibetan 

pag-pa. 

Tibetan 

In,  i  ut. 

THE  B'IIOT. 


209 


English 

now.                             English 

sleep. 

Ahum 

tinai. 

Ahom  (2) 

-non. 

Khamti 

hang. 

W.  Tibetan 

nyan. 

La  u 

leng. 

S.  Tibetan 

nyc. 

\V.  Tibetan 

deng  tse. 

S.  Tibetan 

thanda. 

English 

laugh. 

English 

to-morrow. 

Ahom 

khru. 

Ahum 

Sfing-munai. 

Kharnti 

kho. 

Tibetan 

sang. 

Lau 

khoa. 

Siamese 

hoaro. 

English 

drink. 

W.  Tibetan 

btrad. 

Siamese 

deum. 

S.  Tibetan 

fgd. 

W.  Tibetan 

Vthurig. 

S.  Tibetan 

Siting. 

The  B'hot  itself  is  spoken  over  a  large  area, 
with  but  little  variation.  We  anticipate  the  in 
ference.  It  is  an  intrusive  tongue,  of  compara 
tively  recent  diffusion.  What  has  been  its  di 
rection  ?  From  east  to  west  rather  than  from 
west  to  east ;  at  least  such  is  the  deduction  from 
its  similarity  to  the  T'hay,  and  from  the  multi 
plicity  of  dialects — representatives  of  a  receding 
population — in  the  Himalayas  of  Nepal  and 
Sikkim.  This,  however,  is  a  point  on  which  I 
speak  with  hesitation. 

Dialects  of  the  B'hot  class  are  spoken  as  far 
westward  as  the  parts  about  Cashmir  and  the 
watershed  of  the  Indus  and  Oxus.  This  gives 
us  the  greatest  extent  eastwards  of  any  unequi 
vocally  monosyllabic  tongue. 

The  Chinese  seem  to  have  effected  displace 
ments  as  remarkable  for  both  breadth  and  length 
as  the  T'hay  were  for  length.  We  get  at  their 
10* 


210  THE   CHINESE. 

original  locality  by  the  exhaustive  process.  On 
the  northern  and  western  frontier  they  keep  en 
croaching  at  the  present  moment — at  the  ex 
pense  of  the  Mantshus  and  Mongolians.  For 
the  provinces  of  Chansi,  Pe-tche-li,  Chantnng, 
llonan,  &c.,  indeed,  for  four-fifths  of  the  whole 
empire,  the  uniformity  of  speech  indicates  a 
recent  diffusion.  In  Setshuen  and  Yunnan  the 
type  changes,  probably  from  that  of  the  true 
Chinese  to  the  Tibetan,  T'hay  and  Burmese.  In 
Tonkin  and  Cochin  the  language  is  like  but  dif 
ferent — like  enough  to  be  the  only  monosyllabic 
language  which  is  placed  by  any  one  in  the 
same  section  with  the  Chinese,  but  different 
enough  to  make  this  position  of  it  a  matter  of 
doubt  with  many.  Putting  all  this  together, 
the  south  and  south-eastern  provinces  of  China 
appear  to  be  the  oldest  portions  of  the  present 
area. 

In  fixing  upon  these  as  the  parent  provinces, 
the  evidence  of  ethnology  on  the  one  side,  and 
that  of  the  mass  of  tradition  and  inference  which 
passes  under  the  honorable  title  of  Chinese  his 
tory  on  the  other,  disagree.  This  latter  is  as 
follows  : 

At  some  period  anterior  to  550  B.C.,  the  first 
monarch  with  whom  the  improvement  of  China 
began,  and  whose  name  was  Yao.  ruled  over  a 
small  portion  of  the  present  empire,  viz.  its 


THE   CHINESE. 

north-west  district ;  and  the  first  nations  that  he 
fought  against,  were  the  Yen  and  Tsi,  in  Pe-tche- 
li  and  Shantong  respectively. 

Later  still,  Honan  was  conquered. 

B.  o.  550.  All  to  the  south  of  the  Ta-keang 
was  barbarous ;  and  the  title  of  King  of  Chi 
nese  was  only  Vang  or  prince^  not  Hoang-te  or 
Emperor. 

At  this  time  Confucius  lived.  Amongst  other 
things  he  wrote  the  Tschan-tsen,  or  Annals  of 
his  own  time. 

B.  c.  213.  Shi-hoang-ti,  the  first  emperor  of 
all  China,  built  the  great  wall,  colonized  Japan, 
conquered  the  parts  about  Nankin,  and  pur 
posely  destroyed  all  the  previously  existing  docu 
ments  upon  which  he  could  lay  hand. 

B.  o.  94.  Sse-mats-sian  lived.  "What  Shi- 
hoang-ti  missed  in  the  way  of  records,  Sse-mats- 
sian  preserved,  and,  as  such,  passes  for  the  He 
rodotus  China. 

A  destruction  of  the  earlier  records,  with  a 
subsequent  reconstruction  of  the  history  which 
they  are  supposed  to  have  embodied,  is  always 
suspicious ;  and  when  once  the  principle  of  re 
construction  is  admitted,  no  value  can  be  attach 
ed  to  the  intrinsic  probability  of  a  narration. 
It  may  be  probable.  It  may  be  true.  It  cannot, 
however,  be  historical  unless  supported  by  his 
torical  testimony ;  since  if  true,  it  is  a  guess ; 


212  THE    CHINESE. 

and  if  probable,  a  specimen  of  the  tact  of  the 
inventor.  At  best,  it  can  but  be  tradition  or  an 
inference,  the  basis  of  which  may  be  a  certain 
amount  of  fact — little  or  great,  according  to  the 
temperament  of  the  investigator. 

Xow,  in  the  previous  notice  of  the  history  of 
Chinese  civilization,  we  have  placed  its  claims 
to  a  high  antiquity  under  as  favorable  a  point  of 
view  as  is  allowable.  They  bear  the  appearance 
of  truth — so  much  so,  that  if  we  had  reason  to 
believe  that  there  were  any  means  of  recording 
them  at  so  early  an  epoch  as  GOO  years  B.  c.,  and 
of  preserving  them  to  so  late  a  one  as  the  year 
'51,  skepticism  would  be  impertinent.  But  this 
is  not  the  case.  An  historical  fact  must  be  taken 
upon  evidence,  not  upon  probabilities ;  and  to 
argue  the  antiquity  of  a  civilization  like  the  Chi 
nese  from  the  antiquity  of  its  history,  and  after 
wards  to  claim  an  historical  value  for  remote 
traditions  on  the  strength  of  an  early  civilization, 
is  to  argue  in  a  circle. 

Without  saying  that  all  argument  upon  the 
antiquity  of  the  Chinese  Empire  is  of  this  sort, 
it  may  fairly  be  said  that  much  of  it  has  been 
so — so  much  as  to  make  Confucius  as  mytholo 
gical  a  character  as  Minos,  and  to  bring  the  ear 
liest  reasonable  rcords  to  an  epoch  subsequent  to 
the  introduction  of  Buddhism  from  India.  Even 
this  antiquity  is  only  probable. 


THE    BURMESE.  213 

A  square  "block  of  land  between  the  Ganges 
and  Upper  Irawaddi,  is  occupied  by  one  domi 
nant,  and  upwards  of  thirty  subordinate  sections 
of  one  and  the  same  population — the  Burmese. 
Some  of  these  are  mountaineers,  and  have  re 
treated  before  the  Indians  from  the  south  and 
west — encroachers  upon  the  originally  Burmese 
countries  of  Assam,  Chittagong,  and  Sylhet. 
Others  are  themselves  intruders,  or  (what  is 
much  the  same,")  consolidators  of  conquered 
countries.  Such  are  the  Avans  of  the  Burmese 
Empire,  properly  so  called,  who  seem  to  have 
followed  the  course  of  the  Irawaddi,  displacing 
not  only  small  tribes  akin  to  themselves,  but  the 
Mon  of  Pegu  as  well.  Lastly,  the  Kariens  emu 
late  the  T'hay  in  the  length  of  their  area  and  in 
its  north  and  south  direction,  being  found  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  Tenaserim  Provinces  (in 
11°  !N".  L.)  and  on  the  very  borders  of  China  (in 
23°  N.  L.) 

Ko  great  family  has  its  distribution  so  close 
ly  coincident  with  a  water-system  as  the  one  in 
question.  The  plateau  of  Mongolia  and  the 
Himalayas  are  its  boundaries.  It  occupies  the 
whole  *  of  all  the  rivers  which  rise  within  these 
limits,  and  fall  into  either  the  Bay  of  Bengal  or 

*  Considering  the  Burampiitcr  and  Ganges  as  separate 
rivers. 


214:  THE    MONOSYLLABIC    FAMILY. 

the  Chinese  Sea ;  whereas  (with  the  exception  of 
the  Himalayan  portions  of  the  Indus  and  the 
Ganges)  it  occupies  none  of  the  others.  The 
lines  of  migration  with  the  Indo-Chinese  popu 
lations  have  generally  followed  the  water 
courses  of  the  Indo-Chinese  rivers ;  and  civili 
zation  has  chiefly  flourished  along  their  valleys. 
Yet,  as  these  lead  to  an  ocean  interrupted  by 
no  fresh  continent,  the  effect  of  their  direction 
has  been  to  isolate  the  nations  who  possess 
them.  I  imagine  that  this  has  much  more  to 
do  with  peculiarities  of  the  Chinese  civilization 
than  aught  else.  Had  the  Iloang-ho  fallen  into  a 
sea  like  the  Mediterranean,  the  Celestial  Empire 
would,  probably,  have  given  and  taken  in  the 
way  of  social  and  political  influence,  have  acted 
on  the  manners  of  the  world  at  large,  and  have 
itself  been  reacted  on.  Differences  should  only 
be  attributed  to  so  indefinite  and  so  impalpable 
a  force  as  race  when  all  other  things  are  equal. 

Upon  the  principle  of  taking  the  questions 
in  the  order  of  complexity,  so  as  to  dispose  of 
the  simplest  first,  I  pass  over,  for  the  present, 
the  connection  between  Africa  and  South-West 
ern  Asia,  and  take  the  easier  of  the  two  Euro 
pean  ones. 

The  Turanians. — The  line  which,  beginning 
at  Lapland,  and,  after  exhibiting  the  great  Tu 
ranian  affiliations,  ends  at  the  wall  of  China, 


ASIA — EUROPE — AFRICA.  215 

comprising  the  Ugrians,  Samoeids,*  Yenisei- 
ans,*  Yukahiri,*  Turks,  Mongols,  and  Tungu- 
sians,f  is  connected  with  the  area  of  the  mono 
syllabic  languages  in  different  degrees  of  clear 
ness  according  to  the  criterion  employed.  The 
physical  confirmation  is  nearly  identical.  The 
languages  differ — the  Turanian,  like  the  Ocean 
ic  and  the  American,  being  inflected  and  poly 
syllabic.^:  "With  chis  difference,  the  complexi 
ties  of  the  affiliation  begin  and  end.  Their 
amount  has  been  already  suggested. 

A  great  part  of  Northern  Europe,  Indepen 
dent  Tartary,  Siberia,  Mongolia,  Tibet,  China, 
and  the  Transgangetic  Peninsula,  has  now  been 
disposed  of.  Nevertheless,  India,  Persia,  Asia 
Minor,  and  Caucasus  remain  ;  in  size  inconsid 
erable,  in  difficulty  great — greatly  difficult  be 
cause  the  points  of  contact  between  Europe  and 
Asia,  and  Africa  and  Asia,  fall  within  this  area ; 
greatly  difficult  because  the  displacements  have 
been  enormous ;  greatly  difficult  because,  be 
sides  displacement,  there  has  been  intermixture 
as  well.  Lest  any  one  undervalue  the  displace- 

*  Conveniently  thrown  into  a  single  class,  and  called  Hyper 
boreans. 

t  The  great  family  of  which  the  Mantshus  are  the  best 
known  members. 

t  Not  necessarily  with  many  syllables,  but  with  more  than 
one — hyper -mono-syllabic. 


216  ASIA — EUKOrE AFRICA. 

menfc,  let  him  look  at  Asia  Minor,  which  is  now 
Turk,  which  has  been  Roman,  Persian  and 
Greek,  and  which  has  no  single  unequivocal 
remnant  of  its  original  population  throughout 
its  whole  length  and  breadth.  Yet,  great  as 
this  is,  it  is  no  more  than  what  we  expect  d 
priori.  What  families  are  and  have  been  more 
encroaching  than  the  populations  hereabouts — 
Turks  from  the  north,  Arabs  from  the  south, 
and  Persians  from  the  east  ?  The  oldest  em 
pires  lie  here — and  old  empires  imply  early 
consolidation ;  early  consolidation,  premature 
displacement.  Then  come  the  phenomena  of  in 
termixture.  In  India  there  is  a  literary  language 
of  considerable  age,  and  full  of  inflexions.  Ot 
these  inflexions  not  one  in  ten  can  be  traced  in 
any  modern  tongue  throughout  the  whole  of 
Asia.  Yet  they  are  rife  and  common  in  many 
European  ones.  Again,  the  words  of  this  same 
language,  minus  its  inflexions,  are  rife  and 
common  in  the  very  tongues  where  the  inflex 
ions  are  wanting ;  in  some  cases  amounting  to 
nine-tenths  of  the  lamma^e.  What  is  the  in- 

O          O 

ference  from  this  ?     Not  a  very  clear  one  at  any 
rate. 

Africa  has  but  one  point  of  contact  witli 
Asia,  i.  e.,  Arabia.  It  is  safe  to  say  this,  be 
cause,  whether  w^e  carry  the  migration  over  the 
Isthmus  of  Suez  or  the  Straits  of  Babel-Man- 


TEESIA.  217 

deb,  the  results  are  similar.  The  Asiatic  stock, 
in  either  case,  is  the%  same — Semitic.  But  Eu 
rope,  in  addition  to  its  other  mysteries,  has  two  ; 
perhaps  three.  One  of  these  is  simple  enough 
— that  of  the  Lap  line  and  the  Turanian  stock. 
But  the  others  are  not  so.  It  is  easy  to  make 
the  Ugrians  Asiatic ;  but  by  no  means  easy  to 
connect  the  other  Europeans  with  the  Ugrians. 
The  Sarmatians,  nearest  in  geography,  have 
never  been  very  successfully  affiliated  with 
them.  Indeed,  so  unwilling  have  writers  been 
to  admit  this  relationship,  that  the  Finnic  hy 
pothesis,  with  all  its  boldness,  has  appeared  the 
better  alternative.  Yet  the  Finnic  hypothesis 
is  but  a  guess.  Even  if  it  be  not  so,  it  only 
embraces  the  Basks  and  the  Albanians ;  so 
that  the  so-called  Indo-Europeans  still  stand 
over. 

For  reasons  like  these,  the  parts  forthcom 
ing  will  be  treated  with  far  greater-  detail  than 
those  which  have  preceded  ;  with  nothing  like 
the  detail  of  minute  ethnology,  but  still  slowTly 
and  carefully. 

All  that  thus  stands  over  for  investigation  is 
separated  from  the  area  already  disposed  of  by 
that  line  of  mountains  which  is  traced  from  the 
Garo  Hills  in  the  north-east  of  Bengal  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Kuban  in  the  Black  Sea.  First 
come  the  Eastern  Himalayas,  which,  roughly 


218  PERSIA. 

speaking,  may  be  said  to  divide  the  Indian 
kingdoms  and  dependencies  from  the  Chinese 
Empire.  They  do  not  do  so  exactly,  but  they 
do  so  closely  enough  for  the  present  purpose. 

They  may  also  be  said  in  the  same  way,  to 
divide  the  nations  of  the  Hindu  from  those  of 
more  typically  Mongolian  conformation . 

They  may  also  be  said,  in  the  same  way,  to 
divide  the  Indian  tongues  from  the  monosyllabic. 

On  the  nortJi  side  of  this  range,  languages 
undoubtedly  monosyllabic  are  spoken  as  far 
westwards  as  Little  Tibet.  On  the  south,  there 
are  Hindu  characteristics  both  numerous  and 
undoubted  as  far  in  the  same  direction  as  Cash- 
mir. 

Then  comes  a  change.  To  the  north  and 
west  of  Cashmir  is  a  Koliistan,  or  mountain- 
country,  which  will  soon  require  being  describ 
ed  in  detail.  The  line,  however,  which  we  are 
at  present  engaged  upon  is  that  of  the  northern 
boundary  of  the  Valley  of  the  Kabul  River,  the 
mountains  between  Cabul  and  Herat,  and  the 
continuation  of  the  same  ridge  from  Herat  to*" 
the  south-eastern  corner  of  the  Caspian.  N^ortli 
of  this  we  have — roughly  speaking — the  Uzbek 
and  Turcoman  Turks  ;  south  of  it,  the  Afghans 
and  Persians  Proper.  Bokhara,  however,  is 
Persian,  and  the  Koliistan  in  question  is  not 
Turk — whatever  else  it  may  be. 


KHORASA^.  219 

To  proceed — this  line  runs  nearly  parallel  to 
the  southern  shore  of  the  Caspian.  Of  the  pro 
vinces  to  the  north  of  it,  Asterabad  is  partly 
Turk  and  partly  Persian  ;  Mazenderan  and  Ghi- 
lan,  Persian.  From  Ghilan  northwards  and 
westwards,  the  valleys  of  the  Cyrus  and  Araxes 
form  the  chief  exception  ;  but,  saving  these,  all 
is  mountain  and  mountaineership.  Indeed,  it 
is  Ararat  and  Armenia  which  lie  on  our  left,  and 
the  vast  and  vague  Caucasus  which  rears  itself 
in  front. 

The  simplest  ethnology  of  the  parts  between 
this  range,  the  Semitic  area,  and  the  sea,  is  that 
of  the  Persian  province  of  Khorasan.  With 
Persia  we  are  so  much  in  the  habit  of  connect 
ing  ideas  of  Eastern  pomp  and  luxury,  that  we 
are  scarcely  able  to  give  it  its  true  geographical 
conditions  of  general  sterility.  Yet  it  is  really 
a  desert  with  oases — a  desert  with  oases  for  the 
far  greater  part  of  its  area.  And  of  all  its  pro 
vinces  few  are  more  truly  so  than  Khorasan. 
Here  we  have  a  great  elevated  central  table 
land;  preeminently  destitute  of  rivers,  and 
with  but  few  towns.  Of  these  Yezd  is  the  chief 
in  interest ;  the  head-quarters  of  remains  of  the 
old  fire-worship ;  Yezd  the  city  of  the  Parsees, 
more  numerous  there  than  in  all  the  others  in 
Persia  besides.  Perhaps,  too,  it  is  the  ethnolo 
gical  centre  of  the  Persian  stock ;  since  in  a 


220  PERSIA. FAES IRAK. 

westerly  direction  they  extend  to  Kurdistan,  and 
in  a  northeastern  one  as  far  as  Badukshan  and 
Durwaz  on  the  source  of  the  Oxus.  ' 

The  northern  frontier  is  Turcoman,  where 
the  pastoral  robbers  of  the 'parts  between  Bok 
hara  and  the  Caspian  encroach,  and  have  en 
croached. 

As  far  south  as  Shurukhs  they  are  to  be 
found  ;  and  east  of  Slmrukhs  they  are  succeeded 
by  the  Hazarehs — probably  wholly,  certainly 
partially )  of  Mongolian  blood. 

Abbasabad  on  the  north-west  is  a  Georgian 
colony.  On  the  line  between  Meshed  and  Herat 
are  several  Kurd  colonies.  In  Seistan  we  have 
Persians ;  but  further  south  there  are  Biluch 
and  Brahui.  Due  east  the  Afghans  come  in. 

Kerman  is  also  Persian ;  and  that  to  a 
greater  degree  than  Khurasan.  Fars  is  the 
same  ;  yet  west  of  Fars  the  population  changes, 
and  Arabian  elements  occur.  They  increase  in 
Khuzistan  ;  and  in  Irak  Arabi  we,  at  one  and 
the  same  time,  reach  the  rich  alluvia  of  the  Ti 
gris  and  Euphrates  and  a  doubtful  frontier. 
"Whether  this  was  originally  Arab  or  Persian  is 
a  matter  of  doubt. 

From  Irak  we  must  subtract  Laristan,  and 
the  Baktyari  Mountains,  as  well  as  the  whole 
north-western  half.  Ilamadan  is  the  ancient 
Ecbatana ;  the  ancient  Ecbatana  was  Median— 


THE   BILUCH.  221 

but  that  the  "Mecles  and  Persians  were  as  closely 
allied  in  blood  as  we  suppose  them  to  have  been 
in  their  unalterable  laws,  is  by  no  means  a  safe 
assumption.  The  existence  of  a  third  language 
in  the  arrow-headed  inscriptions  yet  awaits  a 
satisfactory  explanation. 

On  the  other  hand,  Mazenderan  is  wTholly 
Persian  ;  and  so  is  Ghilan  Proper.  The  Talish, 
however,  to  the  north  of  that  province,  are,  pos 
sibly,  of  another  stock.  Asterabad,  as  stated 
above,  is  a  frontier  province. 

I  think  that  there  is  good  reason  for  believ 
ing  Ajerbijan  to  have  been,  originally,  other 
than  Persian. 

In  Balkh  and  Bokhara,  the  older — but  not 
necessarily  the  oldest — population  appears  to  be 
Persian  under  recently  immigrant  Uzbek  mas 
ters.  Beyond  these  countries,  the  Persians  re 
appear  as  the  chief  population  ;  i.  <?.,  in  Baduks- 
han  and  Durwaz. 

Here  the  proper  Persian  population  ends — 
but  not  either  wholly  or  abruptly.  % 

Three  modifications  of  it  occur — 

1.  In  Biluchistan  to  the  south-east. 

2.  In  Kurdistan  to  the  west. 

3.  In  Afghanistan  to  the  east. 

Besides  which,  there  are  Persians  encroach 
ing  upon  the  Armenian  and  Caucasian  area  in 
Shirvan,  Erivan,  and  Karabagh — in  all  of  which 


222  THE   BILUCII THE   KUKDS. 

countries,  as  well  as  in  Ajerbijan,  I  believe  it  to 
Lave  been  intrusive. 

The  Biluch. — East  and  south-east  of  the 
proper  Persians  of  Kerman  come  the  Biluch,  of 
Biluchistan.  There  is  certainly  a  change  of 
type  here.  Physically,  the  country  is  much 
like  the  table-land  of  Kerman.  India,  however, 
is  approached ;  so  that  the  Biluch  are  frontier 
tribes.  To  a  certain  extent  they  are  encroach- 
ers.  AVe  find  them  in  Sind,  in  Multan,  and  in 
the  parts  between  the  Indus  and  the  Sulimani 
Mountains,  and  in  the  middle  part  of  the  Suli 
mani  Mountains  themselves.  They  style  them 
selves  Usul  or  T7ie  Pure,  a  term  which  implies 
either  displacement  or  intermixture  in  the  parts 
around.  Their  language  is  a  modified  (many 
call  it  a  lad).  Persian.  Philologically,  however, 
it  may  be  the  older  and  more  instructive  dia 
lect — though  I  have  no  particular  reasons  for 
thinking  it  so.  Hindu  features  of  physiognomy 
now  appear.  So  do  Semitic  elements  of  polity 
and  social  constitution.  We  have  tribes,  clans, 
and  families,  with  divisions  and  sub-divisions. 
AYe  have  a  criminal  law  which  puts  us  in  mind 
of  the  Levites.  We  have  classes  which  scorn  to 
intermarry ;  and  this  suggests  the  idea  of  caste. 
Then  we  have  pastoral  habits  as  in  Mongolia. 
The  religion,  however,  is  Mahometan,  so  that  if 
any  remains  of  the  primitive  Paganism,  availa- 


THE    KUEDS. 

Lie  for  the  purposes  of  ethnological  classifica 
tion,  still  exist,  they  lie  too  far  below  the  surface 
to  have  been  observed. 

Captain  Postans  distinguishes  the  Biluch 
from  the  Mekrani  of  Mekran ;  but  of  this  lat 
ter  people  I  know  no  good  description.  They 
are,  probably,  Kerman  Persians.  The  hill-range 
between  Jhalawan  and  Sind  is  occupied  by  a 
family  which  has  commanded  but  little  notice  ; 
yet  is  it  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  world, 
the  Brahui. 

Tlie  I&irds. — A  line  drawn  obliquely  across 
Persia  from  Biluchistan  towards  the  north-west 
brings  us  to  another  frontier  population ;  a  pop 
ulation  conterminous  with  the  Semitic  Arabs 
of  Mesopotamia,  and  the  unplaced  Armenians. 
These  are  mountaineers — the  Kurds  of  Kurdis 
tan.  Name  for  name,  they  are  Carditchi  of 
the  Anabasis.  Name  for  name,  they  are  the 
Gordy&i.  Name  for  name,  they  are,  probably, 
the  Chaldo&i  and.  Kliasd4m — a  fact  which  en 
genders  a  difficult  complication,  since  the  Chal- 
dsei,  in  the  eyes  of  nine  writers  out  of  ten — 
though  not  in  those  of  so  good  an  authority  as 
Gesenius — are  Semitic.  The  Kurd  area  is  pre 
eminently  irregular  in  outline.  It  is  equally 
remarkable  for  its  physical  conditions.  It  is  a 
range  of  mountains — just  the  place  wherein  we 
expect  to  find  old  and  aboriginal  populations 


22i  THE    AFGHANS. 

rather  than  new  and  intrusive  ones.  On  the 
other  hand,  however,  the  Kurd  form  of  the 
Persian  tongue  is  not  remarkable  for  the  multi 
plicity  and  difference  of  its  dialects — a  fact 
which  suggests  the  opposite  inference.  Kurds 
extend  as  far  south  as  the  northern  frontier  of 
Fars,  as  far  north  as  Armenia,  and  as  far  west 
as  the  head-waters  of  the  Halys.  Have  they 
encroached  ?  This  is  a  difficult  question.  The 
Armenians  are  a  people  who  have  generally 
given  way  before  intruders ;  but  the  Arabs  are 
rather  intruders  than  the  contrary.  The  Kurd 
direction  is  vertical ;  i.  e.,  narrow  rather  than 
broad,  and  from  north  to  south  (or  vice  versa) 
rather  than  from  east  to  west  (or  vice  versa),  a 
direction  common  enough  where  it  coincides 
with  the  valley  of  a  river,  but  rare  along  a 
mountain  chain.  Nevertheless  it  reappears  in 
South  America,  where  the  Peruvian  area  coin 
cides  with  that  of  the  Andes. 

The  Afghans. — The  Afghan  area  is  very 
nearly  the  water-system  of  the  river  Helmund. 
The  direction  in  which  it  has  become  extended 
is  east  and  north-east ;  in  the  former  it  has  en 
croached  upon  Hindostan,  in  the  latter  upon 
the  southern  members  of  a  class  that  may  con 
veniently  be  called  the  Paropamisan.  In  this 
way  (I  think)  the  Valley  of  the  Cabul  River 
has  become  Afghan.  Its  relations  to  the  Haza- 


BOKHARA.  225 

reh  country  are  undetermined.  Most  of  the 
Ilazarehs  are  Mongolian  in  physiognomy. 
Some  of  them  are  Mongolian  in  both  physiog 
nomy  and  language.  This  indicates  intrusion 
and  intermixture— intrusion  an  intermixture 
which  history  tells  us  are  subsequent  to  the  time 
of  Tamerlane.  Phenomena  suggestive  of  intru 
sion  and  intermixture  are  rife  and  common 
throughout  Afghanistan.  In  some  cases — as  in 
that  of  Hazarehs — it  is  recent,  or  subsequent  to 
the  Afghan  occupation  ;  in  others,  it  is  ancient 
and  prior  to  it. 

Bokhara. — I  have  not  placed  the  division 
containing  the  Tajiks  of  Balkh,  Kunduz,  Dur- 
waz,  Badukshan,  and  Bokhara,  on  a  level  with 
that  containing  the  Afghans,  Kurds  and  Biluch, 
because  I  am  not  sure  of  its  value.  Probably, 
however,  it  is  in  reality  as  much  a  separate  sub 
stantive  class  as  any  of  the  preceding.  Here 
the  intrusion  has  been  so  great,  the  political 
relations  have  been  so  separate,  and  the  inter 
mixed  population  is  so  heterogeneous  as  for  it 
to  have  been,  for  a  long  time,  doubtful  whether 
the  people  of  Bokhara  were  Persian  or  Turk. 
Klaproth,  however,  has  shown  that  they  belong 
to  the  former  division,  though  subject  to  the 
Uzbek  Turks.  If  so,  the  present  Tajiks  represent 
the  ancient  Bactrians  and  Sogdians — the  Per 
sians  of  the  valley  and  water  system  of  the  Oxus. 
But  what  if  these  were  intruders  ?  I  have  little 
11 


226  TAJIKS    AND    ILIYATS. 

doubt  about  the  word  Oxus  (Ok-sus)  represent 
ing  the  same  root  as  the  Ycik  in  Yaxsartes 
(Yak-sartes),  and  the  Yaik,  the  name  of  the 
river  flowing  into  the  northern  part  of  the  Cas 
pian.  Kow  this  is  the  Turanian  name  for 
river,  a  name  found  equally  in  the  Turk,  Ugua- 
ri,  and  Hyperborean  languages.  At  any  rate, 
Bokhara  is  on  an  ethnological  frontier. 

But  Bactria  and  Sogdiana  were  Persian  at 
the  time  of  Alexander's  successors ;  they  were 
Persian  at  the  very  beginnig  of  the  historical 
period.  Be  it  so.  The  historical  period  is  but 
a  short  one,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  a  popu 
lation  should  not  encroach  at  one  time,  and  be 
encroached  upon  at  another. 

All  the  parts  enumerated,  and  all  the  divi 
sions,  are  so  undoubtedly  Persian,  that  few  com 
petent  authorities  deny  the  fact.  The  most  that 
has  ever  been  done  is  to  separate  the  Afghans. 
Sir  "W".  Jones  did  this.  He  laid  great  stress 
upon  certain  Jewish  characteristics,  had  his 
head  full  of  the  Ten  Tribes,  and  was  deceived 
in  a  vocabulary  of  their  languages,  Mr.  Nor- 
riss  also  is  inclined  to  separate  them,  but  on 
different  grounds.  He  can  neither  consider  the 
Afghan  language  to  be  Indo-European,  nor  the 
Persian  to  be  otherwise.  His  inference  is  true, 
if  his  facts  are.  But  what  if  the  Persian  be 
other  than  Indo-European  ?  In  that  case  they 
are  both  free  to  fall  into  the  same  category. 


PERSIAN   LANGUAGE.  227 

But  the  complexities  of  the  Persian  popula 
tion  are  not  complete.  There  is  the  division  be 
tween  the  Tajiks  and  the  Iliyats  •  the  former 
being  the  settled  occupants  of  towns  and  villages 
speaking  Persian,  the  others  pastoral  or  wan 
dering  tribes  speaking  the  Arab,  Kurd,  and 
Turk  languages.  That  Tajik  is  the  same  word 
as  the  root  Taoc,  in  Taoc-ene,  a  part  of  the  an 
cient  country  of  Persis  (now  Fars],  and,  conse 
quently,  in  a  preeminent  Persian  locality,  is  a 
safe  conjecture.  The  inference,  however,  that 
such  was  the  original  locality  of  the  Persian 
family,  is  traversed  by  numerous — but  by  no 
means  insuperable — difficulties.  In  respect  to 
their  chronological  relations,  the  general  state 
ment  may  be  made,  that  wherever  we  have  Ta 
jiks  and  Iliyats  together,  the  former  are  the 
older,  and  the  latter  the  newer  population. 
Hence  it  is  not  in  any  Iliyat  tribe  that  we  are 
to  look  for  any  nearer  approach  to  the  aborigi 
nes,  than  what  we  find  in  the  normal  population. 
They  are  the  analogues  of  the  Jews  and  gipsies 
of  Great  Britain,  rather  than  of  the  "Welsh- 
recent  grafts  rather  than  parts  of  the  old  stock. 
In  Afghanistan  this  was  not  so  clearly  the  case. 
Indeed  the  inference  was  the  other  way. 

The  antiquities  and  history  of  Persia  are  too 
well  known  to  need  more  than  a  passing  allusion. 
The  creed  was  that  of  Zoroaster ;  still  existent, 


228  INDIA. 

in  a  modified  (perhaps  a  corrupted,  perhaps  an 
improved)  form,  in  the  religion  of  the  modern 
Parsis.  The  language  of  the  Zoroastrian  Scrip 
tures  was  called  Zend.  Now  the  Zend  is  Indo- 
European — Indo-European  and  highly  inflected. 
The  inflections,  however,  in  the  modern  Persian 
are  next  to  none ;  and  of  those  few  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  they  are  Zend  in  origin.  Ne 
vertheless,  the  great  majority  of  modern  Persian 
words  are  Zend.  What  does  this  mean?  It 
means  that  the  philologist  is  in  a  difficulty  ;  that 
the  grammatical  structure  points  one  way,  and 
the  vocabulary  another.  This  difficulty  will 
meet  us  again. 

Indian—In  the  time  of  Herodotus,  and  even 
earlier,  India  was  part  of  the  Persian  empire. 
Yet  India  was  not  Persia.  It  was  no  more  Per 
sia  in  the  days  of  Darius  than  it  is  English  now. 
The  original  Indian  stock  was  and  is  peculiar — 
peculiar  in  its  essential  fundamentals,  but  not 
pure  and  unmodified.  The  vast  extent  to  which 
this  modification  implies  encroachment  and  in 
termixture,  is  the  great  key  to  nine-tenths  of  the 
complexities  of  the  difficult  ethnology  of  Hin- 
dostan.  Whether  we  look  to  the  juxtaposition 
of  the  different  forms  of  Indian  speech,  the 
multiform  degrees  of  fusion  between  them,  the 
sections  and  sub-sections  of  their  creeds — legion 

O 

by  name — the  fragments  of  ancient  paganism, 


INDIA.  229 

the  differences  of  skin  and  feature,  or  the  insti 
tution  of  caste,  intrusion  followed  by  intermix 
ture,  and  intermixture  in  every  degree  and  under 
every  mode  of  manifestation,  is  the  suggestion. 

And  now  we  have  our  duality ;  viz.,  the 
primitive  element  and  the  foreign  one — the 
stock  and  the  graft.  Nothing  is  more  certain 
than  that  the  graft  came  from  the  north-west. 
Does  this  necessarily  mean  from  Persia  ?  Such 
is  the  current  opinion ;  or,  if  not  from  Persia, 
from  some  of  those  portions  of  India  itself  near 
est  the  Persian  frontier.  There  are  reasons,  how 
ever,  for  refining  on  this  view.  Certain  influ 
ences,  foreign  to  India,  may  have  come  through 
Persia,  without  being  Persian.  The  proof  that 
a  particular  characteristic  was  introduced  into 
India  ma  Persia  is  one  thing  ;  the  proof  that  it 
originated  in  Persia  is  another.  T^hey  have  often, 
however,  been  confounded.  v 

In  the  south  of  India  the  foreign  element  is 
manifested  less  than  in  the  north  ;  so  that  it  is 
the  south  of  India  which  exhibits  the  original 
stock  in  its  fullest  form.  Its  chief  characteristics 
are  referable  to  three  heads,  physical  form,  creed, 
and  language.  In  respect  to  the  first,  the  south 
ern  Indian  is  darker  than  the  northern — coeteris 
paribus,  i.  e.  under  similar  external  conditions  ; 
but  not  to  the  extent  that  a  mountaineer  of  the 
Dekhan  is  blacker  than  a  Bengali  from  the  delta 


230  TAMULIAN    FAMILY. 

of  the  Ganges.  Descent,  too,  or  caste  influen. 
ces  color,  and  the  purer  the  blood  the  lighter 
the  skin.  Then  the  lips  are  thicker,  the  nose 
less  frequently  aquiline,  the  cheek-bones  more 
prominent,  and  the  eyebrows  less  regular  in  the 
southrons.  The  most  perfect  form  of  the  Indian 
face  gives  us  regular  and  delicate  features,  arch 
ed  eyebrows,  an  aquiline  nose,  an  oval  contour, 
and  a  clear  brunette  complexion.  All  this  is 
Persian. 

Depart  from  it  and  comparisons  suggest 
themselves.  If  the  lips  thicken  and  the  skin 
blackens,  we  think  of  the  Xegro ;  if  the  cheek 
bones  stand  out,  and  if  the  eye — as  it  sometimes 
does — become  oblique,  the  Mongol  comes  into 
our  thoughts. 

The  original  Indian  creeds  are  best  charac 
terized  by  negatives.  They  are  neither  Brah- 
minic  nor  Bhuddhfet. 

The  language,  for  the  present,  is  best  brought 
under  the  same  description.  Xo  man  living 
considers  it  to  be  Indo-European. 

In  proportion  as  any  particular  Indian  pop 
ulation  is  characterized  by  these  three  marks, 
its  origin,  purity,  and  indigenous  nature  become 
clearer — and  vice  versa.  Hence,  they  may  be 
taken  in  the  order  of  their  outward  and  visible 
signs  of  aboriginality. 

First  come — as  already  stated — the  South- 


TAMULIAN    FAMILY.  231 

rons  of  the  Continent  ;*  and  first  amongst  these 
the  mountaineers.  In  the  Eastern  Ghauts  we 
have  the  Chenehwara,  between  the  Kistna  and 
the  Pennar ;  in  the  Western  the  Cohatars,  Tu- 
das,  Cururnbars,  Erulars,  and  numerous  other 
hill-tribes  ;  all  agreeing  in  being  either  imperfect 
Bralmiinists  or  Pagans,  and  in  speaking  and 
languages  akin  to  the  Tamul  of  the  coast  of 
Coromandel ;  a  language  which  gives  its  name 
to  the  class,  and  introduces  the  important  phi 
lological  term  Tamulian.  The  physical  appear 
ance  of  these  is  by  no  means  so  characteristic 
as  their  speech  and  creed.  The  mountain  habi 
tats  lavor  a  lightness  of  complexion.  On  the 
other,  it  favors  the  Mongol  prominence  of  the 
cheek-bones.  Many,  however,  of  the  Tudas 
have  all  the  regularity  of  the  Persian  counte 
nance — yet  they  are  the  pure  amongst  the  pure 
of  the  native  Tamulian  Indians. 

In  the  plains  the  language  is  Tamulian,  but 
the  creed  Brahminic ;  a  state  of  evidence  which 
reaches  as  far  north  as  the  parts  about  Chicacole 
east,  and  Goa  west. 

In  the  South)  then,  are  the  chief  samples  of 
the  true  Tamulian  aborigines  of  Indian;  the 
characteristics  of  whom  have  been  preserved 
by  the  simple  effect  of  distance  from  the  point 

*  Observe — not  of  the  island  of  Ceylon. 


232  HINDU    LANGUAGE. 

of  disturbance.  Distance,  however,  alone  Las 
been  but  a  weak  preservative.  The  combina 
tion  of  a  mountain-stronghold  has  added  to  its 
efficiency. 

In  Central  India  one  of  these  safeguards  is 
impaired.  We  are  nearer  to  Persia ;  and  it  is 
only  in  the  mountains  that  the  foreign  elements 
are  sufficiently  inconsiderable  to  make  the  Ta- 
mulian  character  of  the  population  undoubted 
and  undeniable.  In  the  Mahratta  country  and 
in  Gondwana,  the  Ghonds,  in  Orissa  the  Kols, 
Klionds,  and  Surs,  and  in  Bengal  the  Rajma- 
hali  mountaineers  are  Tamulian  in  tongue  and 
Pagan  in  creed — or,  if  not  Pagan,  but  imper 
fectly  Brahminic.  But,  then,  they  are  all  moun 
taineers.  In  the  more  level  country  around 
them  the  language  is  Mahratta,  Udiya,  or  Ben 
gali. 

Xow  the  Mahratta,  Udiya*  and  Bengali  are 
not  unequivocally  and  undeniably  Tamulian. 
They  are  so  far  from  it,  that  they  explain  what 
was  meant  by  the  negative  statement  as  to  the 
Tamulian  tongues  not  being  considered  Indo- 
European.  This  is  just  what  the  tougues  in 
question  have  been  considered.  Whether  right 
ly  or  wrongly  is  not  very  important  at  present. 
If  rightly,  we  have  a  difference  of  language  as 

*  Of  Ovissa. 


HILL-TRIBES    OF    INDIA.  233 

primd  facie — but  not  as  conclusive — evidence 
of  a  difference  of  stock.  If  wrongly,  we  have, 
in  the  very  existence  of  an  opinion  which  com 
mon  courtesy  should  induce  us  to  consider  rea 
sonable,  a  practical  exponent  of  some  consider 
able  difference  of  some  sort  or  other — of  a  change 

O 

from  the  proper  Tamulian  characteristics  to 
something  else  so  great  in  its  degree  as  to  look 
like  a  difference  in  kind.  With  the  Bengali — 
and  to  a  certain  extent  with  the  other  two  popu 
lations — the  foreign  element  approaches  its  max- 
imum^OT  (changing  the  expression)  the  evidence 
of  Tamil} ianism  is  at  its  minimum.  Yet  it  is 
not  annihilated.  The  physical  appearance  of 
the  Mahratta,  at  least,  is  that  of  the  true  South 
Indian.  Even  if  the  language  be  other  than 
Tamulian,  the  Hindus  of  northern  India  may 
still  be  of  the  same  stock  with  those  of  Mysore 
and  Malabar,  in  the  same  way  that  a  Cornish- 
man  is  a  Welshman ;  i.  <?.,  a  Briton  who  has 
changed  his  mother-tongue  for  the  English. 

Intermediate  to  the  Khonds  and  the  Bengali, 
in  respect  to  the  evidence  of  their  Tamulian  af 
finities,  are  the  'mountaineers  of  north-western 
India.  Here,  the  preservative  effects  of  dis 
tance  are  next  to  nothing.  Those,  however,  of 
the  mountain-fastnesses  supply  the  following 
populations — Berdars,  Eamusi,Wurali,  Paurias, 
11* 


234  THE   BRAHUI. 

Kulis,  Bhils,  Mewars,  Moghis,  Minas,  &c.  &c., 
speaking  languages  of  the  same  class  with  the 
Mahratta,  Udiya,  and  Bengali,  but  all  imper 
fectly  Brahminic  in  creed. 

The  other  important  languages  of  India  in 
the  same  class  with  those  last-mentioned,  are 
the  Guzerathi  of  Guzerat,  the  Hindu  of  Oude, 
the  Punjabi  of  the  Punjab,  and  several  others 
not  enumerated — partly  because  it  is  not  quite 
certain  how  we  are  to  place  them,*  partly  be 
cause  they  may  be  sub-dialects  rather  than  se 
parate  substantive  forms  of  speech.  They  take 
us  up  to  the  Afghan,  Biluch,  and  Tibetan  fron 
tier. 

These  have  been  dealt  with.  But  there  is 
one  population,  belonging  to  these  self-same 
areas,  with  which  we  have  further  dealings. 
Biluchistan  has  been  described  ;  but  not  in  de 
tail.  The  Biluch,  that  give  their  name  to  the 
country,  have  been  noticed  as  Persian.  But 
the  Biluch  are  as  little  the  only  and  exclusive 
inhabitants  of  it,  as  the  English  are  of  Great 
Britain.  We  have  our  Welsh,  and  the  Biluch 
have  their  Brahui. 

Again — the  range  of  mountains  that  forms 
the  western  watershed  of  the  Indus  is  not 

*  The  Cashrnirian  of  Cashmir  is  in  this  predicament.  It  is 
not  safe  to  say  that  it  is  Hindu  rather  than  Persian,  or  Paro- 
pamisan,  a  term  which  will  soon  find  its  explanation. 


THE    BRAHTTT.  235 

wholly  Afghan.  It  is  Biliich  as  well.  But  it 
is  not  wholly  Biliich*.  The  Bilucli  reach  to  only 
a  certain  point  southwards.  The  range  between 
the  promontory  of  Cape  Montze  and  the  upper 
boundary  of  Kutch  Gundava  is  Brahui.  There 
is  no  such  word  as  JSrahuistan  /  but  it  would 
be  well  if  there  were. 

Now  the  language  of  the  J3rahui  belongs  to 
the  Tamidian  family.  The  affinity  by  no 
means  lies  on  the  surface — nor  is  it  likely  that 
it  should.  The  nearest  unequivocally  Tamulian 
dialect  on  the  same  side  of  India  is  as  far  south 
as  Goa — such  as  exist  further  to  the  north  being 
either  central  or  eastern.  Supposing,  then,  the 
original  continuity,  how  great  must  have  been 
the  displacement;  and  if  the  displacement  have 
been  great,  how  easy  may  the  transitional  forms 
have  disappeared,  or,  rather,  how  truly  must 
they  once  have  been  met  with  ! 

However,  the  Brahui  affinities  by  no  means 
lie  on  the  surface.  The  language  is  known 
from  one  of  the  many  valuable  vocabularies  of 
Leach.  Upon  this,  no  less  a  scholar  than  Las- 
sen  commented.  "Without  fixing  it,  he  re 
marked  that  the  numerals  were  like  those  of 
Southern  India.  They  are  so,  indeed ;  and  so 
is  a  great  deal  more ;  indeed,  the  collation  of 
the  whole  of  the  Brahui  vocabularies  with  the 


236  THE    GEORGIANS. 

Tamul  and  Khond  tongues  en  masse  makes  tlie 
Bralmi  Tamulian. 

Is  it  original  or  intrusive  ?  All  opinion — 
valeat  quantum — goes  against  it  being  the  for 
mer.  The  mountain-fastness  in  which  it  occurs 

goes  the  other  way. 

•&  #  #  -:•:-  -x- 

Our  sequence  is  logical  rather  than  geo 
graphical  ;  i.  e.,  it  takes  localities  and  languages, 
in  the  order  in  which  they  are  subservient  to 
ethnological  argument  rather  than  according 
to  their  contiguity.  This  justifies  us  in  mak 
ing  a  bold  stride,  in  passing  over  all  Persia, 
and  in  taking  next  in  order — Caucasus,  with 
all  its  conventional  reminiscences  and  sugges 
tions. 

The  languages  of  Caucasus  fall  into  a  group, 
which,  for  reasons  already  given,  would  be  in 
conveniently  called  Caucasian,  but  which  may 
conveniently  be  termed  Dioscurian*  This  falls 
into  the  following  five  divisions  :  1.  The  Geor 
gians  ;  2.  the  Iron ;  3.  the  Mizjeji ;  4.  the  Les- 
gians  ;  and  5.  the  Circassians. 

1.  The  Georgians. — It  is  the  opinion  of 
Rosen  that  the  central  province  of  Kartulinia, 
of  which  Tiflis  is  the  capital,  is  the  original  seat 

*  From  the  town  of  Dioscurias,  in  which  Pliny  says  business 
was  carried  on  through  130  interpreters — so  numerous  were  the 
languages  end  dialects. 


THE    GEORGIANS.  237 

of  tlie  Georgian  family ;  the  chief  reasons  lying 
in  the  fact  of  that  part  of  the  area  being  the 
most  important.  Thus  the  language  is  called 
Kartulinian  ;  whilst  the  provinces  round  about 
Kartulinia  are  considered  as  additions  or  acces 
sions  to  the  Georgian  domain,  rather  than  as 
integral  and  original  portions  of  it — a  fact  which 
makes  the  province  in  question  a  sort  of  nucleus. 
Lastly,  the  Persian  and  Russian  names,  Gurg- 
istan  and  Gr-usia,  by  which  the  country  is 
most  widely  known,  point  to  the  valley  of  the 
Kur. 

To  all  this  I  demur.  The  utmost  that  is 
proved  thereby  is  the  greater  political  promi 
nence  of  the  occupants  of  the  more  favored 
parts  of  the  country  ;  as  the  middle  course  of 
the  Kur  really  is. 

Of  the  two  sides  of  the  watershed  that  sep 
arates  the  rivers  of  the  Black  Sea  *  from  those 
of  the  Caspian, f  it  is  the  western  which  has  the 
best  claim  to  be  considered  the  original  habitat 
of  the  Georgians.  Here  it  is  that  the  country 
is  most  mountainous,  and  the  mountains  most 
abrupt.  Hence  it  is,  too,  that  a  population 
would  have  both  the  wish  and  power  to  migrate 
towards  the  plains  rather  than  vice  versa. 

More  weighty  still  is  the  evidence  derived 
from  the  dialects.  The  Kartulinian  is  spoken 

*  The  Phasis,  Tshorok,  &c.  f  The  Kur  and  Aras. 


238  THE    GEORGIANS. 

over  more  than  half  the  whole  of  Georgia : 
whereas,  for  the  parts  not  Kartulinian,  we  hear 
of  the  following  dialects  : — 

1.  The  Suanic,  on  the  head-waters  of  the 
small  rivers  between  Mingrelia,  and  the  south 
ern  parts  of  the  Circassian  area — the  Ingur,  the 
Okoumiskqual,  &c.  This  is  the  most  northern 
section  of  the  Georgian  family. 

2,  3.  The  Mingrelian  and  the  Imiritian. 

4,  5.  The  Guriel  and  Akalsike  in  Turkish 
Georgia. 

6.  The  Lazic. — This  is  the  tongue  of  the 
most  western  dialects.  The  hills  which  form 
the  northern  boundary  of  the  valley  of  the 
Tsorokh  are  the  Lazic  locality ;  and  here  the 
diversity  has  attained  its  maximum.  Small  as 
is  the  Lazic  population,  every  valley  has  its  sep 
arate  variety  of  speech. 

I  believe,  then,  that  in  Central  Caucasus  the 
Ivartulinian  Georgians  have  been  intrusive ; 
and  this  is  rendered  probable  by  the  character 
of  the  populations  to  the  north  and  east  of 
them.  Between  Georgia  and  Daghestan  wTe 
have,  in  the  preeminently  inaccessible  parts  of 
the  eastern  half  of  Caucasus,*  two  fresh  fam 
ilies,  different  from  each  other,  different  from 
the  Lesgians,  and  different  from  the  Circassians. 

*  The  Iron  and  Mizjeji. 


THE    IRON MIZJEJI LESGIAXS.  239 

With  such  reasons  for  believing  the  original 
direction  of  the  Georgian  area  to  have  been 
westernly,  we  may  continue  the  investigation. 
That  they  were  the  occupants  of  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  eastern  half  of  the  ancient  Pon- 
tus,  is  probable  from  the  historical  importance 
of  the  Lazi  in  the  time  of  Justinian,  when  a 
Lazic  war  disturbed  the  degenerate  Romans  of 
Constantinople.  It  is  safe  to  carry  them  as  far 
west  as  Trebizond.  It  is  safe,  too,  to  carry  them 
farther.  One  of  the  commonest  of  the  Geor 
gian  terminations  is  the  syllable  -pe  or  -fo',  the 
sign  of  the  plural  number ;  a  circumstance 
which  gives  the  town  of  Sino-pe  a  Georgian 
look — Sinope  near  the  promontory  of  Calli-ppi. 

2.  The  Iron.— To  the  north-west  of  Tiflis  we 
have  the  towns  of  Duchet  and  Gori,  one  on  the 
Kur  itself,  and  one  on  a   left  hand  feeder  of 
it.     The  mountains  above  are  in  the  occupation 
of  the  Iron  or  Osetes.     In  Russian  Georgia  they 
amount  to  about  28,000.     The  name  Iron  is  the 
one  they  give  themselves ;   Oseti  is  what  they 
are  called  by  the  Georgians.     Their  language 
contains  so  great  a  per-centage  of  Persian  words 
or  vici  versd,  that  it  is  safe  to  put  them  both  in 
the  same  class.      This  has,  accordingly,   been 
done — and  a  great  deal  more  which  is  neither 
safe  nor  sound  has  been  done  besides. 

3.  The  Mizjeji. — Due  east  of  the  mountain- 


240  THE   LESGIANS — THE   CIRCASSIANS. 

eer  Iron  come  the  equally  mountaineer  Mizjeji, 
a  family  numerically  small,  but  falling  into  di 
visions  and  sub-divisions.  Hence,  it  has  a  pre 
eminent  claim  to  be  considered  aboriginal  to 
the  fastnesses  in  which  it  is  found.  The  parts 
north  of  Telav,  to  the  north-east  of  Tiflis,  form 
the  Mizjeji  area.  It  is  a  small  one — the  Cir 
cassians  bound  it  on  the  north,  and  on  the  east. 

4.  The  Lesgians  of  Eastern  Caucasus  or  Da- 
ghestan,  next  to  the  Circassians  the  most  inde 
pendent  family  of  Caucasus.  None  falls  into 
more  divisions  and  subdivisions  ;  e.g. 

a.  The  Marulan  or  Mountaineers  (from  Ma- 
rul=mountairi)  speak  a  language  called  the 
Avar,  of  which  the  Anzukh,  Tshari,  Audi,  Ka- 
butsh,  Dido  and  Unsoh  are  dialects. 

I.  The  Kasi-ltumuk. 

c.  The  AJcush. 

d.  The  Kura  of  South  Daghestan. 

The  displacements  of  the  Iron  and  Mizjeji — 
and  from  the  limited  area  of  their  occupancies, 
displacement  is  a  legitimate  inference — must 
have  been  chiefly  effected  by  the  Georgians 
alone  ;  that  of  the  Lesgians  seems  referable  to 
a  triple  influence.  That  the  Talish  to  the  north 
of  Ghilan  are  Lesgians  who  have  changed  their 
native  tongue  for  the  Persian,  is  a  probable  sug 
gestion  of  Frazer's.  If  correct,  it  makes  the 
province  of  Shirvan  a  likely  part  of  the  original 


THE    ARMKNIANS.  24:1 

Lesgian  area — encroachment  having  been  effect 
ed  by  the  Armenians,  Persians,  and  Georgians. 

5.  The  Circassians  occupy  the  northern 
Caucasus  from  Daghestan  to  the  Kuban  ;  coming 
in  contact  with  the  Slavonians  and  Tartars,  for 
the  parts  between  the  Sea  of  Azov  and  the  Cas 
pian.  As  both  these  are  preeminent  for  en 
croachment,  the  earlier  contact  was,  probably, 
that  of  the  most  northern  members  of  the  Cir 
cassian  family,  and  the  southern  Ugrians.  The 
divisions  and  subdivisions  of  the  Circassian 
family  are  both  numerous  and  strongly  marked. 

The  Armenians. — Except  amongst  the  moun 
taineer  Iron  and  Mizjeji,  there  are  Armenians 
over  the  whole  of  Russian  Caucasus — mixed,  for 
the  most  part,  with  Georgians.  They  are  so- 
journers  rather  than  natives.  In  Shirvan,  Kar- 
abagh,  and  Karadagh  they  are  similarly  mixed 
with  Persians  and  Turks.  In  this  case,  however, 
the  Armenian  population  is  probably  the  older  ; 
so  that  we  are  approaching  the  original  nucleus 
of  the  family.  In  Erivan  there  are  more  Ar 
menians  than  aught  else  ;  and  in  Kars  and 

O 

Erzerum  they  attain  their  maximum.  In  Diar- 
bekr  the  iron  tier  changes,  and  the  tribes  which 
now  indent  the  Armenian  area  are  the  Semitic 
Arabs  and  Chaldani  of  Mesopotamia,  and  the 
Persian  Kurds  of  Kurdistan. 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  about  the  extent 


242  ASIA    MINOR. 

to  which  the  Armenian  language  differs  from 
the  Georgian,  considering  the  geographical  con 
tact  between  the  two.  True  it  is  that  the 
tongues  are  in  contact  now,  and  so  they  probably 
were  2000  years  ago.  Yet  it  by  no  means  fol 
lows  that  they  were  always  so.  The  Georgian 
has  encroached,  the  Iron  retreated  ;  a  fact  which 
makes  it  likely  that,  at  a  time  when  there  was 
no  Georgian  east  of  Imiritia,  the  Osetic  of  Tshil- 
dir  and  the  Armenian  of  Kars  met  on  the  Up 
per  Kur.  The  inference  drawn  from  the  rela 
tions  between  the  Mon,  Kho}  ond  T'hay  tongues 
is  repeated  here,  inasmuch  as  the  Iron  and  Ar 
menian  are  more  alike  than  the  Armenian  and 
Georgian.  As  a  rough  measure  of  the  likeness 
I  may  state  the  existence  of  the  belief  that  both 
are  Indo-European. 

Asia  Minor. — From  Armenia  the  transition 
is  to  Asia  Minor.  One  of  the  circumstances 
which  give  a  preeminent  interest  and  impor 
tance  to  the  ethnology  of  Asia  Minor  is  the  cer 
tainty  of  the  original  stock  being,  at  the  present 
moment,  either  wholly  extinct,  or  so  modified 
and  changed  as  to  have  become  a, problem  rather 
than  ^  fact.  There  is  neither  doubt  nor  shadow 
of  doubt  as  to  this — since  it  is  within  the  histo 
rical  period  that  this  transformation  has  taken 
place.  It  is  within  the  historical  period  that  the 
Osmanli  Turks,  spreading,  more  immediately 


ASIA    MINOK.  243 

from  the  present  country  of  Turkestan,  but  re 
motely  from  the  chain  of  the  Altaic  Mountains, 
founded  the  kingdom  of  Roum  under  the  Selju- 
kian  kings,  and  as  a  preliminary  to  the  invasion 
and  partial  occupation  of  Europe,  made  them 
selves  masters  of  the  whole  country  limited  by 
Georgia,  Armenia,  Mesopotamia,  and  Syria  on 
the  east  and  south,  and  by  the  Euxine,  the  Bos 
porus,  the  Propontis,  the  Hellespont,  and  the 
^Egean  Sea  westwards.  Since  then,  whatever 
may  be  the  Hood,  the  language  has  been  Turk. 
This  is,  of  course,  primd  facie  evidence  of  the 
stock  being  Turk  also.  !N"or  are  there  any  very 
cogent  reasons  on  the  other  side.  The  physiog 
nomy  is  generally  described  as  Turk,  and  the 
habits  and  customs  as  well. 

Such  is  what  we  get  from  the  general  travel 
ler — and  a  more  minute  ethnology  than  this  has 
not  yet  been  applied.  What  will  be  the  result, 
when  a  severer  test  is  applied,  is  another  ques 
tion.  It  is  most  probable  that  points  of  physi 
ognomy,  fragmentary  traditions  and  supersti 
tions,  old  customs,  and  peculiar  idiotisms  in  the 
way  of  dialect,  will  point  to  a  remnant  of  the 
older  stock  immediately  preceding  it.  In  such 
a  case,  the  ethnological  question  becomes  com 
plicated — since  the  present  Turks  will  be  then 
supposed  to  have  mixed  with  the  older  natives, 
rather  than  to  have  replaced  them  in  toto  /  so 


244  ASIA    MINOR. 

that  the  phenomena  will  rather  be  those  exhib 
ited  in  England  (where  the  proportion  of  the 
older  Celtic  and  the  newer  Anglo-Saxon  is  an 
open  question)  than  those  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  where  the  blood  is  purely  European, 
and  where  the  intermixture  of  the  aboriginal 
Indian — if  any — goes  for  nothing. 

Of  the  occupants  of  Asia  Minor  previous  to 
the  Osmanli  Turks  we  can  ascertain  the  elements? 
but  not  the  proportions  which  they  bore  to  each 
other. 

1.  Ihere  was  an  element  supplied   by  the 
Byzantine   Greek    population  —  itself   preemi 
nently  mixed  and  heterogeneous. 

2.  There  was  an  element  supplied  by  the 
purer  Greek  population  of  Greece  Proper  and 
the  Islands. 

3.  There  were,  perhaps,  traces  of  the  old 
Greek  populations  of  yEolia,  Doris,  and  Ionia. 

4.  There  was  an  extension  of  the  Armenian 
population  from  the  ea^t. 

5.  Of  the  Georgian  from  the  north-east. 

6.  Of  the  Semitic  from  the  south-east. 

7.  There  was   also  Arab  and  Syriac  inter 
mixture  consequent  on  the  propagation  of  Ma- 
hometanism. 

8.  There  were  also  remnants  of  a  Proper 
Roman  population  introduced  during  the  time 
of  the  Republic  and  Western  Empire;  e.  g.,  of 


ASIA    MINOR.  245 

the  sort  that  the  Consulate  of  Cicero  would  in 
troduce  into  Cilicia. 

9.  There  were  also  remnants  of  the  Persian 
supremacy  ;  e.  g.,  of  a  sort  which  would  be  intro 
duced  when  it  was  a  Satrapy  of  Tissaphernes  or 
Pharnabazus. 

10.  Lastly,  there  would  be  traces  of  the  Ma 
cedonian  Greeks ;    whose    impress   would   be 
stamped  upon  it  during  the  period  which  elapsed 
between  the  fall  of  Darius  and  that  of  Antio- 
chus. 

All  this  suggests  numerous  question? — but 
they  are  questions  of  minute  rather  than  general 
ethnology.  The  latter  takes  us  to  the  considera 
tion  of  the  populations  of  the  frontier.  Here 
we  find — 

1.  Georgians. 

2.  Armenians. 

3.  Semites  of  Mesopotamia  and  Syria, 

4.  Greeks  of  the  JEgean  Islands. 

5.  Bulgarians,  and  Turks  of  Thrace. 

Of  these,  the  last  are  recent  intruders ;  so 
that  the  real  ethnology  to  be  considered  is  that 
of  ancient  Thrace.  Unfortunately  this  is  as  ob 
scure  as  that  of  Asia  Minor  itself. 

The  Greeks  of  the  ^Egean  are  probably  intru 
sive  ;  the  other  three  are  ancient  occupants  of 
their  present  areas. 

Now,  in  arguing  upon  the  conditions  afford- 


24:6  LYCIA — EXTRACTS. 

ed  by  this  frontier,  it  is  legitimate  to  suppose 
that  each  of  the  populations  belonging  to  it  had 
some  extension  beyond  their  present  limits,  in 
which  case  the  d  priori  probabilities  would  be 
that— 

1.  On  the  north-west  there  was  an  extension 
of  the  Thracian  population. 

2.  On  the  north-east,  of  the  Georgian. 

3.  On  the  east,  of  the  Armenian. 

4.  On  the  south,  of  the  Syrian  and  Mesopo- 
t  a  mi  an. 

Now,  the  population  of  Asia  Minor  may  have 
been  a  mere  extension  t>f  the  populations  of  the 
frontiers — one  or  all. 

But  it  also  may  have  been  separate  and  dis 
tinct  from  any  of  them. 

In  this  case,  we  are  again  supplied  with  an 
alternative. 

1.  The  population  may  have  been  one — just 
as  that  of  Germany  is  jne. 

2.  The  population  may  have  fallen  in  seve 
ral — nay,  numerous  divisions — so  that  the  so- 
called  races  may  have  been  one,  two,  three,  four, 
or  even  more. 

Dealing  with  these  questions,  we  first  ask 
what  are  the  reasons  for  supposing  the  popula 
tion — whether  single  or  sub-divided — of  Asia  to 
have  been  peculiar ;  i.  e.,  different  from  that  of 
the  frontier  areas — Georgia,  Thrace,  Armenia, 
Mesopotamia  and  Syria  ? 


LYCIA — EXTRACTS.  247 

This  is  answered  at  once  by  the  evidence  of 
the  Lycian  Inscriptions,  which  prove  the  Lycian, 
at  least,  to  have  been  distinct  from  all  or  any  of 
the  tongues  enumerated. 

The  following  extracts,  however,  from  Hero 
dotus  carry  us  farther  : 

"The  Lycians  were  originally  out  of  Crete  ; 
since,  in  the  old  times,  it  was  the  Barbarians  who 
held  the  whole  of  Crete.  When,  however,  there 
was  a  difference  in  Crete,  in  respect  to  the  king 
dom,  between  the  sons  of  Europa,  Minos  and 
Sarpedon,  and  when  Minos  got  the  best  in  the 
disturbance  he  (Minos)  expelled  both  Sarpedon 
himself  and  his  faction ;  and  these,  on  their  ex 
pulsion,  went  to  that  part  of  Asia  which  is  the 
Milyadic  land.  For  that  country  which  the 
Lycians  now  inhabit,  was,  in  the  old  times, 
Milyas ;  and  the  jbttlycB  were  then  called  Solymi. 
For  a  time  Sarpedon  ruled  over  them.  They 
called  themselves  by  the  name  which  they 
brought  with  them  ;  and  even  now,  the  Lycians 
are  called  by  the  nations  that  dwell  around  them, 
TermilcB.  But  when  Lycus,  the  son  of  Pandion, 
driven  away  from  Athens,  and  like  Sarpedon, 
by  his  brother  (^Egens),  came  to  the  Termilse 
under  Sarpedon,  they,  thence,  in  the  course  of 
time,  wTere  called,  after  the  name  of  Lycus,  Ly 
cians.  The  usages  are  partly  Cretan,  partly 
Carian.  One  point,  however,  they  have  pecu- 


218  LYCIA — EXTRACTS. 

liar  to  themselves,  and  one  in  which  they  agree 
with  no  other  men.  They  name  themselves 
after  their  mothers,  and  not  from  their  fathers : 
so  that  if  any  one  be  asked  .by  another  who  he  is, 
he  will  designate  himself  as  the  son  of  his  mo 
ther,  and  number  tip  mother's  mothers.  Again, 
if  a  free  woman  marry  a  slave,  the  children  are 
deemed  free  ;  whereas,  if  a  man  be  even  in  the 
first  rank  of  citizens,  and  take  either  a  strange 
wife  or  a  concubine,  the  children  are  disho 
nored." 

"Whilst  Asia  Minor  was  being  conquered  for 
Persia,  under  the  reign  of  Cyrus,  by  Harpagus, 
the  Carians  made  no  great  display  of  valor ; 
with  the  exception  of  the  citizens  of  Pedasus. 
These  gave  Harpagus  considerable  trouble ;  but, 
in  time,  were  vanquished.  !N"ot  so  the  Lycians. 
"  The  Lycians,  as  Harpagus  marched  his  army 
towards  the  Xanthian  plain,  retreated  before 
him  by  degrees,  and,  fighting  few  against  many, 
showed  noble  deeds  ;  but  being  worsted  and 
driven  back  upon  the  town,  they  collected  within 
the  citadel  their  wives,  and  children,  and  goods, 
and  servants.  They  then  set  light  to  the  citadel 
to  burn  it  down.  This  being  done,  they  took  a 
solemn  oath,  and,  making  a  sally,  died  to  a  man, 
sword  in  hand.  But  of  those  Lycians  who  now 
called  themselves  Xanthians,  the  majority  are, 
except  eighty  hearths,  strangers  (hr^Met)*  These 


TIFE   CAUNIANS — THE   CAttlANS.  249 

eighty  hearths  (families)  were  then  away  from 
the  country.  And  so  they  escaped.  Thus  it  was 
that  Harpagus  took  Xanthus.  In  like  manner 
he  took  Caunus.  For  the  Caunians  resemble 
the  Lycians  in  most  things" 

And  now  we  have  a  second  fact,  the  follow 
ing,  viz.,  that  what  the  Lycians  were  the  Cau 
nians  were  also. 

1.  The  Caunians. — According  to  the  special 
evidence  of  Herodotus,  the  Caunians  had  two 
peculiar  customs — one,  to  make  no  distinction 
between  age  and  sex  at  feasts,  but  to  drink  and 
junket  promiscuously — the  other,  to  show  their 
contempt  of  all  strange  foreign  gods,  by  march 
ing  in  armor  to  the  Calyndian  mountains,  and 
beating  the  air  with  spears,  in  order  to  expel 
them  from  the  boundaries  of  the  Caunian  land. 
Still  the  Caunians  were  Lyeian. 

Were  any  other  nations  thus  Lyeian  ?  Can. 
nian  ?  Lyco-Caunian  ?  or  Cauno-Lycian  ?  since 
the  particular  designation  is  unimportant. 

The  Carians. — The  language  of  the  Carians 
and  the  Caunians  was  the  same  ;  since  Herodo 
tus  writes :  The  Caunian  nation  has  either 
adapted  itself  to  the  Carian  tongue,  or  the  Car  ion 
to  Caunian. 

2.  On  the  other  hand,  the  worship  of  the  na 
tional  Eponymus  was  different.     The  Lydians 
andMysians  share  in  the  worship  of  tlie  Carian 

12 


250  THE   CARIANS. 

Jove.  These  do  so.  As  many^  however,  of  dif 
ferent  nations  (fdvog)  as  have  become  identical  in 
language  with  the  Carians  do  not  do  so. 

And  here  comes  a  difficulty  ;  one  part  of  the 
fact  connects,  the  other  disconnects  the  Carians 
from  the  Lycians.  The  language  goes  one  way, 
the  customs  another. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  complication  intro 
duced  by  the  Carian  family.  The  whole  ques 
tion  of  their  origin  is  difficult,  and  that  of  their 
affinities  is  equally  so.  It  was  from  the  islands 
to  the  continent,  rather  than  from  the  continent 
to  the  islands,  that  the  Carians  spread  them 
selves  ;  and  they  did  this  as  subjects  of  Minos, 
and  under  the  name  of  Leleges.  As  long  as  the 
system  of  Minos  lasted,  these  Carian  Leleges 
paid  no  tribute,  but  furnished,  when  occasion 
required,  ships  and  sailors  instead.  And  this 
they  did  effectually,  inasmuch  as  the  Carian 
was  one  of  the  most  powerful  nations  of  its  day, 
and,  besides  that,  ingenious  in  warlike  contri 
vances.  Of  such  contrivances  three  were  adopted 
by  the  Greeks,  and  recognized  as  the  original 
invention  of  the  Carians.  The  first  of  these  was 
the  crest  for  the  helmet ;  the  second,  the  device 
for  the  shield;  the  third,  the  handle  for  the 
shield.  Before  the  Carians  introduced  this  last 
improvement,  the  fighting-man  hung  his  buck 
ler  by  a  leathern  thong,  either  on  his  neck  or 


THE   CAEIANS.  251 

his  left  shoulder.  Such  was  the  first  stage  in 
the  history  of  Carian  Leleges,  .who  were  insular 
rather  than  continental,  andLelegian  rather  than 
Carian.  It  lasted  for  many  years  after  the  death 
of  Minos ;  but  ended  in  their  being  wholly 
ejected  from  the  islands,  and  exclusively  limited 
to  the  continent,  by  the  Dorians  and  lonians  of 
Greece. 

This  would  connect  the 

1.  Carians  with  the  aboriginal  islanders  of 
the  ^Egean — these  being  Leleges. 

2.  Also  with  the  Caunians. 

3.  Also  with  the  Lycians.     Unfortunately, 
the  evidence  is  not  unqualified.     It  is  complica 
ted  by 

The  native  tradition. — The  Carian  race  is 
not  insular,  but  aboriginal  to  the  continent; 
bearing  from  the  earliest  times  the  name  it 
bears  at  the  present  time.  As  a  proof  of  this, 
the  worship  of  the  Carian  Jupiter  is  common 
to  two  other,  unequivocally  continental  nations, 
the  Lydians  and  the  Mysians.  All  three  have 
a  share  in  a  temple  at  Mylasa,  and  each  of  the 
three  is  descended  from  one  of  three  brothers — 
Car,  Lydus,  or  Myrus — the  respective  eponymi 
of  Caria,  Lydia,  and  Mysia. 

All  this  is  not  written  for  the  sake  of  any 
inference  ;  but  to  illustrate  the  difficulties  of  the 
subject.  A  new  series  of  facts  must  now  be 
added — or  rather  two  new  ones. 


252  ASIA   MINOR. 

1.  There  are  special  statements  in  the  class 
ics  that  the  Phrygian,  Armenian,  and  Thracian 
languages  were  the  same. 

2.  One  of  the  three  languages  of  the  arrow- 
headed  inscriptions  has  yet  to  be  identified  with 
any  existing  tongue. 

The  reader  is  in  possession  of  a  fair  amount 
of  complications.  They  can  easily  be  increased. 

Instead  of  enlarging  on  them,  I  suggest  the 
following  doctrine : 

1.  That,   notwithstanding   certain    conflict 
ing  statements,  the  populations  of  Mysia,  Lydia, 
Caria,  and  part  of  Lycia,  were  closely  allied. 

2.  That  a  language  akin  to  the  Armenian 
was  spoken  as  far  westwards  as  eastern  Phry- 
gia. 

3.  That   some  third  population,  either  sub 
ject  to  Persia  or  in  alliance  with  it,  spoke  the 
language  of  the  Lycian  inscriptions — properly 
distinguished  by  Mr.  Forbes  and  others  from 
the  ancient  Lycian  of  the  Milyans — which  last 
may  have  been  Semitic. 

4.  That  the  third  language  of  arrow-headed 
inscriptions,  supposing  its  locality  to  have  been 
Media,  may  have   indented   the  north-eastern 
frontier. 

5.  That,  besides   the  Greek,  two   intrusive 
languages  may  have  been  spoken  in  the  north 
west    and     south-western    parts     respectively, 
viz: 


ASIA    MINOR. 


253 


a.  The  Thracian  of  the  opposite  coast  of  the 
Bosporus. 

5.  The  Lelegian  of  the  islands. 

Of  these  the  former  was,  perhaps,  Sarmatian, 
whilst  the  latter  may  have  borne  the  same  rela 
tion  to  the  Carian  as  the  Malay  of  Sumatra 
does  to  that  of  the  Orang  Binua  oi  the  Malayan 
Peninsula. 

It  may  be  added,  that  the  similarity  of  the 
name  ThekJies,  the  mountain  from  which  the 
10,000  Greeks  saw  the  sea,  to  the  Turk  Tagh^ 
suggests  the  likelihood  of  Turk  encroachments 
having  existed  as  early  as  the  time  of  Arta- 
xerxes. 

Lastly. — The  termiiation-dfer,  in  Seaman- 
der  (a  bilingual  appellation)  and  Mcean-der,  in 
dicates  Persian  intrusion  of  an  equally  early  date, 

Of  the  glosses  collected  by  Jablonsky,  none 
are  illustrated  by  any  modern  language,  except 
the  following : 


English 

axe. 

Armenian 

shun. 

Lydian 

labr-ys. 

Sanskrit 

shune. 

Armenian 

dabar. 

Lettish 

suns. 

Persian 

tawar. 

Kurd 

teper. 

English 

bread. 

Phrygian 

bekos. 

English 

fire. 

Armenian 

khaz 

Phrygian 

pyr. 

Akush 

kaz 

Armenian 

pur. 

Afghan 

wmr,  or. 

English 

water. 

Kurd 

ur. 

Phrygian 

hydor. 

Greek,  &c. 

imp,  fire,  tj-c. 

Armenian 

tshur. 

Greek,  &e. 

vciwp,  water, 

English 

dog. 

Phrygian 

kyn. 

254  THE    PAROPAMISANS. 

There  is  no  denying  that  these  affinities  are 
Indo-European  rather  than  aught  else,  and  that 
they  are  Armenian  as  well ;  an  objection  to 
several  of  the  views  laid  down  in  the  preceding 
pages  which  I  have  no  wish  to  conceal.  How 
ever,  all  questions  of  this  kind  are  a  balance  of 
conflicting  difficulties.  As  a  set-off  to  this, 
take  the  following  table,  where  the  Armenian 
affinites  are  Turk,  Dioscurian,  and  Siberian 
also. 


English  man. 

Scythian  oior. 

Uigur  er. 

Kasan  ir. 

Baskir  ir. 

Nogay  ir. 


Tobolsk  ir. 

Yeneseian  eri. 

Teleut  eri. 

Kasach  erin. 

Casikumuk  ioori. 

Armenian  air. 


The  watershed  of  the  Oxus  and  Indus. — 
We  are  in  the  north-eastern  corner  of  Persia. 
The  Push-ta-Khur  mountain,  like  many  other 
hills  of  less  magnitude,  contains  the  sources  of 
two  rivers,  different  in  their  directions — of  the 
Oxus  that  falls  into  the  Sea  of  Aral ;  and  of  the 
right  branch  of  the  Kuner,  a  feeder  of  the  Ca- 
bul  river — itself  a  member  of  the  great  water- 
system  of  the  Indus.  Its  south-western  pro 
longation  gives  us  the  corresponding  watershed. 
This  is  a  convenient  point  for  the  study  of  a 
difficult  but  interesting  class  of  mountaineers, 
who  may  conveniently  be  called  Paropamisans 
from  the  ancient  name  of  the  Hindu-kush. 


THE   DARDOH.  255 

Their  northern  limits  are  the  heights  in  ques 
tion.  Southwards  they  reach  the  Afghan  fron 
tier  in  the  Kohistan  of  Cabul.  Eastward  they 
come  in  contact  with  India.  There  is  no  better 
way  of  taking  them  in  detail  than  that  of  fol 
lowing  the  water-courses,  and  remembering  the 
watersheds  of  the  rivers. 

I.  The  Oxus. — At  the  very  head-waters  of 
the  Oxus,  and  in  contact  with  the  Kirghiz  Turks 
of  Pamer,  comes  the  small  population  of  Wok- 
han,  speaking  a  language  neither  Turk  nor  Per 
sian — at  least  not  exactly  Persian  ;  and,  next  to 
Wokhan,  Shughnan,  where  the  dialect  (possibly 
the  language)  seems  to  change.     Roshan,  next 
(along  the  Oxus)  to  Shughnan,  seems  to  be  in 
the  same  category.     Durwaz,  however,  is  sim 
ply  Tajik.     All  are  independent,  and  all  Ma 
hometan. 

II.  The  Indus.— I.  The  Indus.— The  Gil- 
ghit  *  river  feeds  the  Indus  ;  two  other  feeders 
that  join  it  from  the  east  being  called  the  Hunz 
and  the  Burshala,  Nil,  or  Nagar.     The  popula 
tion  of  each  of  these  rivers  is  agricultural,  and 
is,  accordingly,  called  Dunghar,  a  Hindu,  but 
no  native  term.     Their  Rajah  is  independent ; 
their  religion  a  very  indifferent  Mahometanism. 

*  From  Moorcroft's  Travels  in  the  Himalayan    Provinces 
and  Vigne's  Cashmir. 


256  THE    CHITKALI    AND    KAFFRES. 

On  the  Gilgliit  and  the  parts  below  its  junction 
with  the  Hunz  and  Nagar  rivers,  the  dialect 
(perhaps  the  language)  seems  to  change,  and 
the  people  are  known  as  Dardoh  (or  Darcls)  and 
Chilass  Dardoh — the  Daradre  of  the  Greek  and 
the  Daradas  of  the  Sanskrit  writers.  These,  too, 
are  imperfect  Mahometans.  The  Dards  and 
Dunghers  carry  us  as  far  as  Little  Tibet  (Bultis- 
tan)  and  the  Cashmirian  frontiers. 

2.  The  Jhelum. — This  is   the  river  of  the 

famous    valley    of    Cashmir the    population 

whereof  (with  some  hesitation)  I  consider  Paro- 
pamisan. 

3.  The  Cabul  River.— \.  The  Eu ner.— The 
eastern  watershed  of  the   Upper  Kuner  is  com 
mon  to  the  Gilgliit  river.     The  population  is 
closely  akin  to  the  Dardoh  and  Dungher ;  its 
area  being  Upper  arid  Lower  Chitral,  its  lan 
guage  the  Chitrali,  its  religion  Shia  Mahomet- 
anism. 

South  of  the  Chitral,  on  the  middle  Kuner, 
the  creed  changes,  and  we  have  the  best  known 
of  the  Paropamisans,  the  Kaffres  of  Kafferistan, 
reaching  as  far  westwards  and  northwards  as 
Kunduz  and  Badukshan — the  Kaffres,  or  Infi 
dels,  so  called  by  their  Mahometan  neighbors, 
because  they  still  retain  their  primitive  pagan 
ism. 

Now  when  we  approach  the  Cabul  river  it- 


THE   SWATSIS.  257 

self,  the  direction  of  which,  from  west  to  east, 
is  nearly  at  right  angles  with  the  Xiiner,  the 
characteristics  of  the  Dardoh,  Chitrali,  and 
Kaffre  populations  decrease ;  in  other  words, 
the  area  is  irregular,  and  the  populations  them 
selves  either  partially  isolated  or  intermixed. 
Thus,  along  the  foot  of  the  mountains  north  of 
the  Cabul  river  and  west  of  the  Kiiner,  comes 
Lughmani  country ;  the  language  being  by  no 
means  identical  with  the  Kafir,  and  the  Kafir 
paganism  being  reduced  to  an  imperfect  Maho 
metan — nemchu  Mussulman,  or  half  Mussul 
man,  being  the  term  applied  to  the  speakers  of 
the  Lughmani  tongue. of  the  valley  of  the  Nijrow 
and  the  parts  about  it. 

The  Der,  Tirhye,  and  Pashai  vocabularies  of 
Leach  all  represent  Paropamisan  forms  of  speech 
spoken  by  small  and,  more  or  less,  fragmentary 
populations. 

The  valley  or  the  Lundye  has,  almost  cer 
tainly,  been  within  a  recent  period,  Paropami 
san.  Thus  is  it  that  Elphin stone  writes  of  its 
chief  occupants :  "  The  Swatis,  who  are  also 
called  Deggauns,  appear  to  be  of  Indian  origin. 
They  formerly  possessed  a  kingdom  extending 
from  the  western  branch  of  the  Hydaspes  to  near 
Jellabahad.  They  were  gradually  confined  to 
narrower  limits  by  the  Afghan  tribes ;  and  Swaut 
and  Buner,  their  last  seats,  were  reduced  by  the 


258  CONCLUSION. 

Eusofzyis  in  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
They  are  still  very  numerous  in  those  countries.' 
By  Indian  I  believe  a  population  akin  to  that 
of  Cashmeer  is  denoted — I  do  not  say  intended. 
Another  extract  carries  us  further  still :  "  The 
Shulmauni  formerly  inhabited  Shulmaun,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Korrum.  They  afterwards  moved 
to  Tira,  and  in  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century 
they  were  in  Hustnugger,  from  which,  they  were 
expelled  by  the  Eusofzyes.  The  old  Afghan 
writers  reckon  them  Deggauns,  but  they  appear 
to  have  used  the  word  loosely.  There  are  still 
a  few  Shulmauni  in  the  Eusofzye  country  who 
have  some  remains  of  a  peculiar  language." 

Hence,  the  Paropamisans  may  safely  be 
considered  as  a  population  of  a  receding  fron 
tier,  the  encroachment  upon  their  area  having 
been  Afghan.  With  these  the  Asiatic  popula 
tions  end. 


If  we  now  look  back  upon  the  ground  that 
has  been  gone  over,  we  shall  find  that  the  evi 
dence  of  the  human  family  have  originated  in 
one  particular  spot,  and  having  diffused  itself 
from  thence  to  the  very  extremities  of  the  earth, 
is  by  no  means  absolute  and  conclusive.  Still 
less  is  it  certain  that  that  particular  spot  has 
been  ascertained.  The  present  writer  believes 


CONCLUSION.  259 

that  it  was  somewhere  in  intratropical  Asia,  and 
that  it  was  the  single  locality  of  a  single  pair — 
without,  however,  professing  to  have  proved  it. 
Even  this  centre  is  only  hypothetical — near,  in 
deed,  to  the  point  which  he  looks  upon  as  the 
starting-place  of  the  human  migration,  but  by 
no  means  identical  with  it.  The  Basks  and  Al 
banians  he  does  not  pretend  to  have  affiliated  ; 
but  he  does  not,  for  this  reason,  absolutely  iso 
late  them.  They  have  too  many  miscellaneous 
affinities  to  allow  them  to  stand  wholly  alone. 

In  the  way  of  physical  conformation,  the 
Hottentot  presents  the  maximum  of  peculiari 
ties.  The  speech,  however,  of  the  latter  is  sim 
ply  African;  whilst,  in  form  and  color,  the 
Basks  and  Albanians  are  European.  A  fly  is  a 
fly  even  when  we  wonder  how  it  came  into  the 
amber ;  and  men  belong  to  humanity  even  when 
their  origin  is  a  mystery.  This  gives  us  a  com 
position  of  difficulties,  and  it  is  by  taking  this 
and  similar  phenomena  into  account,  that  the 
higher  problems  in  ethnology  must  be  worked. 
Nothing  short  of  a  clear  and  comprehensive 
view  of  the  extent  to  which  points  of  difference 
in  one  department  are  compensated  by  points 
of  likeness  in  another,  will  give  us  a  philosophi 
cal  hypothesis  ;  all  partial  argument  from  par 
tial  points  of  disagreement  beeing  as  unscien- 


260  CONCLUSION. 

tific    as    a     similar    overvaluation    of    resem 
blances. 

As  for  the  detail  of  the  chief  difficulties,  the 
writer  believes  that  he,  unwillingly  and  with 
great  deference,  differs  from  the  best  authorities, 
in  making  so  little  of  the  transition  from  Ame 
rica  to  Asia,  and  so  much  of  that  between  Eu 
rope  and  Asia.    The  conviction  that  the  Semitic 
tongues  are  simply  African,  and  that  all  the 
heories  suggested  by  the  term  Indo-European 
must  be  either  abandoned  or  modified,  is  the 
chief  element  of  his  reasoning  upon  this  point — 
reasoning  far  too  elaborate  for  a  small  work  like 
the  present.    He  also  believes  that  the  languages 
of  Kafferistan,  the  Dardoh  country,  and  north 
eastern  Afghanistan,  are  transitional  to  the  mo 
nosyllabic  tongues  and  those  of  Persia — in  other 
words,  that  the  modern  Persian  is  much  more 
monosyllabic  than  is  generally  supposed.     Yet 
even  this  leaves  a  break.     How  far  the  most 
western  tongue  of  this  class  can  be  connected 
with  those  of  Europe,  and  how  far  the  most 
s<9w£A-western   one    has   Semitic   affinities,   are 
questions  yet  to  examine — questions  beset  with 
difficulties.     However,  as  the  skeleton  of  system 
he  believes  the  present  work  to  be  true,  as  far 
as  it  goes,  and  at  the  same  time  convenient  for 
the  investigator.   That  there  is  much  in  all  classi 
fications  which  requires  to  be  unlearnt,  is  certain. 


CONCLUSION.  261 

Lest  any  one  think  this  a  presumptuous  saying, 
let  him  consider  the  new  and  unsettled  state  of 
the  science,  and  the  small  number  of  the  labor 
ers  as  compared  with  the  extent  of  the  field. 


THE    END. 


°CT  3  0  196/1  DAY  USE 

TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BO 


tE. 


This  publication  is  due  on  the 
stamped  below. 


)ATE 


«4       f\ 
ml  f\\  /         J      11 

196^ 

SENY  OM  !l  l 

pJQV    1  J 

i  A  ii  n  •**   <nm 

JAN  0  7  1S97 

/i/JG,._7n 

U.  C.  BERKELEY 

u  "^ 

7  19TZ 

REC'D 

LD 

Jl'NlS  VJ/3 


SEP  2  1  197^ 


1992 


RB  17-60m-8,'60 
(B3395slO)4188 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


U.C.BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


CDMDflES^h 


